Terence Atmane has been unable to overcome the dominance of Jannik Sinner when he has played him twice recently.
Atmane made a breakthrough run at the Cincinnati Open, reaching the semifinals as a qualifier before being beaten by Jannik Sinner.
Despite causing shockwaves in the States, Atmane actually missed the US Open after withdrawing from qualifying due to a foot injury.
The Frenchman returned to winning ways at the China Open, where Atmane was once again beaten by Sinner.
Terence Atmane reveals if he wants to play Jannik Sinner again
Atmane and Sinner’s two matches have been very different, with their Cincinnati Open semifinal resulting in a straight sets victory for the latter.
Their match at the China Open was quite the contrast, with something bizarre occurring between Sinner and Atmane.
Atmane was also able to win a set against the four-time Grand Slam champion, before he faded physically in the deciding set.
When speaking to ATPTour.com about their recent meetings, Atmane revealed that he had been thinking about playing Sinner a lot even before heading to Asia and admitted that he still has a lot of work to do if he wants to beat the Italian.
“Honestly, I was thinking about it all the time when I was practising in Dubai before coming to Asia, thinking about what I have to do on court to get closer to him every single day,” said Atmane. “And the match [in Beijing] showed me that I can win a set, but at the same time, I’m not ready at all to be able to beat him in three.
“It showed me I’m doing the right things because I’ve done a better result than the last time. It’s very important to keep in mind that, for me, nobody is unbeatable, although there is a lot of work to do if I want to be able to beat him.”
Despite his recent losses to Sinner, Atmane does not appear to be deterred from playing him again and is looking to close the gap against the very best players.
“It’s important to raise the bar, super high,” added Atmane. “I’m not focused on trying to be Top 50, Top 40, Top 30. All I want to do is become a better player and a better person every single day.
“In Cincinnati, I beat Taylor [Fritz] and Holger [Rune]. I know that they are better than me, but I can beat them. Jannik, he’s better than me, but for now, I cannot beat him. And this is exactly why I was so motivated to play him again.
“First of all, I wanted to prove to myself that I was able to put a dot on the first stage, of winning a set against him. Now the next stage is going to be winning two sets, but it will take time, of course.
“But I keep giving it my best, because it’s definitely my objective one day to beat players like Jannik and Carlos [Alcaraz]. That’s pretty much the only objective that I have in mind.”
Atmane will likely have to wait some time to play Sinner again, as he was forced to retire from his first round match at the Shanghai Masters.
Terence Atmane names his favourite ATP player who he tried to copy growing up
In this interview Atmane was also asked about his favourite player, which he admitted was ‘pretty random’.
That man is former Australian Open finalist and 2004 Olympic doubles champion Fernando Gonzalez, who Atmane admitted he modelled his game on as a child.
“It seems pretty random that he would have been my favourite player, but growing up I loved to watch him play,” Atmane said about Gonzalez.
“He seemed to bring so much explosiveness every time he played; the forehand was going huge all the time. I really liked that and tried to copy him a little bit when I was younger. Even now I’m still watching his matches, like, every time I have some free moments.”
Gonzalez had a career-high ranking of world number five, and Atmane is looking to work towards that after reaching his current best of world number 61.
It is currently unclear as to how severe Atmane’s physical issues are, but his next scheduled tournament is the European Open in Brussels.
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