Jannik Sinner ends Terence Atmane's run in Cincinnati, scores 200th hard-court win of career

Terence Atmane has had a breakthrough week and a half in Cincinnati, not only reaching the first ATP semifinal of his career—and at a Masters 1000 event, no less—but also scoring the first two Top 10 wins of his career along the way, against No. 4 Taylor Fritz and No. 9 Holger Rune.

On Saturday, though, the No. 1 was just too tough.

Jannik Sinner ended the No. 136-ranked French qualifier’s run, sneaking out a close first set in a tie-break before rolling to a 7-6 (4), 6-2 victory.

And it was a milestone win: the 200th hard-court win of his career.

The world No. 1, who turned 24 on Saturday, is the first man born in the 2000s to record 200 career wins on hard courts.

MOST HARD-COURT WINS, MEN BORN IN 2000s (tour-level):

• 200: Jannik Sinner [born in 2001]
• 164: Felix Auger-Aliassime [born in 2000]
• 123: Carlos Alcaraz [born in 2003]
• 100: Holger Rune [born in 2003]
• 92: Sebastian Korda [born in 2000]

Despite being ranked 135 spots lower than Sinner, Atmane stayed on serve with him throughout the first set, losing just eight points in six service games—he was never even pushed to deuce in any of them.

But after a double fault on the first point of the tie-break things started to unravel, as Sinner jumped out to a 3-0 lead and never really looked back en route to tucking away the 46-minute opening frame.

The world No. 1 then got the first break of the match for a 3-1 lead in the second set and cruised from there, even breaking serve again in the very last game to close out the one-hour, 26-minute encounter.

Atmane left the court to a standing ovation from the fans.

"He has beaten some incredible players throughout his way to the semifinals, and so I knew that I had to be very, very careful," Sinner said of the Frenchman. "I feel like I handled the situations on the court today very well. He was serving incredibly well in the first set. He has a huge, huge potential, and I think we saw this throughout this tournament.

"I wish him only the best."

The 23-year-old Atmane will make his Top 100 debut when the new rankings come out Monday, rising from No. 136 to just inside the Top 70.

Sinner, who has now won his last 26 matches in a row on hard courts—a run that dates back to last October—is now a win away from his first Masters 1000 title of the year, and the fifth of his career.

His previous four Masters 1000 titles have all come on hard courts—Canada in 2023 and Miami, Cincinnati and Shanghai in 2024.

Up next for the No. 1-ranked Italian in the final will be one of the other two Top 3 players—either No. 2-ranked Carlos Alcaraz or No. 3-ranked Alexander Zverev, who will play the second semifinal on Saturday night.

The men's final in Cincinnati will take place on Monday.