Terence Atmane says his recent fall in the rankings has made him feel more stressed on the Tour after his controversial exit from qualifying at the Shanghai Masters.
The Frenchman retired from his match against Bernard Tomic when down 3-5 in the deciding set after escaping disqualification earlier. Tied at 2-2 in the third set, Atmane hit a forehand error and threw his racket across the court out of anger. The racket hit the side of the court but nearly went over and could have struck a spectator, which would have resulted in a default.
In his previous tournament, a Challenger event in Jingshan, he also retired from his match against Elias Ymer when the score was tied at 5-5 in the final set.
“I like to take the chance to apologize regarding my bad behaviour yesterday (at the Shanghai masters),” Atmane wrote in an Instagram story.
“Being inside the top 40 a month ago and seeing myself almost out of the top 100 made me way more stressed and pressured than I could possibly imagine.
“It doesn’t excuse me for my bad behaviour, and after considering what happened on court for these past weeks, I’ve decided to take a step back and rebuild myself from 0.”
Atmane reached a ranking high of 41st in April but has fallen to 99th. He was still inside the world’s top 50 as recently as August. He has reached one Tour-level quarter-final so far this season, which was at a 500 event in Acapulco, Mexico. He also reached the last 16 of the Miami Masters.
Given the recent lull in his form, Atmane admits he is considering pulling the plug on his season because of unspecified health issues.
“Considering my health issues (not mental but actual health) I can’t tell if my season is over yet but all I know is that no matter what decisions we will make, it’ll be the best one,” he said.
Atmane has few points to defend for the rest of this season. After last year’s China Open, he didn’t win another match in 2025.
