MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The tennis second which most stopped me in my tracks final month got here at ATP 500 Dallas, when the unseeded Frenchman Terence Atmane took courtroom to play his first spherical match in opposition to Frances Tiafoe.
Tiafoe was enjoying his first match because the Australian Open, the place he’d reached the third spherical and showed promising signs for his season.
Tiafoe had additionally began in model along with his wardrobe, sporting a customized Lululemon outfit in Melbourne which was impressed by the inexperienced, white, and blue of the flag of his dad and mom’ homeland of Sierra Leone.
“The custom look will be worn by Tiafoe on court, placing personal identity and cultural storytelling at the forefront of one of the sport’s most global stages.
The kit features a dynamic spray-paint graphic intended to reflect the energy and movement of a tennis ball in play. Its blue, green and white colour palette is inspired by the Sierra Leone flag, offering a subtle yet powerful nod to Tiafoe’s family roots.”
Tiafoe had switched into a brand new purple Lululemon ensemble for Dallas. But there was Atmane, the Frenchman, sporting the Sierra Leone-inspired outfit throughout from him.
Technically, Atmane wasn’t sporting the precise identical shirt as Tiafoe had worn in Melbourne, however as an alternative the retail model of the ensemble, which Lululemon calls a “Men’s Ventilated Short-Sleeve Tennis Shirt” in “Spray Slam Blue Green Multi.”
Because Atmane had worn a jacket onto the courtroom as the 2 gamers had been strolling out, Tiafoe had no thought what his opponent was sporting, he instructed Bounces, till he walked to the web for the coin toss and noticed his personal bespoke outfit staring again at him, an sudden sight he repeatedly known as “crazy”—as was evident from his slacked-jaw, smiling face in footage of the second.
“It was crazy, it was crazy—I liked it,” Tiafoe instructed Bounces. “A lot of guys wear jackets when they come out, and I always go out in headphones and stuff, so I’m kind of in my own world. And when I walked to the net, I was like, ‘Come on, dawg.’ But it was funny, man, and I think it was good. I mean, it kind of shows his personality.”
Atmane is a uncommon tour-level participant who will get to choose what he wears: he was dropped by Asics in late 2024 and nonetheless doesn’t have an attire sponsor—uncommon amongst top-100 ATP gamers.
But whereas he will get to choose his personal seems to be, Atmane instructed Bounces that he’d by no means earlier than pulled any such stunt like he did in opposition to Tiafoe in Texas.
“First time, first time,” Atmane stated. “I remember I was watching Frances playing with that kit in Australia and it just came straight to my mind [for how] to play Frances. I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to try to go in his head a little bit before the match and I’m going to try to get his kit.”
So earlier than the match, Atmane discovered a Lululemon retailer close to the Dallas event and went there himself to do some purchasing.
“It’s pretty easy for me to get the fits there,” Atmane stated. “So I’m just going there, grabbing the fit, paying [for it] myself, and then coming back straight onto the court with it.”
While Tiafoe wasn’t mad, he was actually motivated, and received 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.
“I couldn’t lose—I’ll tell you that much,” Tiafoe instructed Bounces. “I mean, shit: you can beat me any time, but I can’t lose when this guy’s wearing my tee. So when I lost the first set, I was stressing out a little bit. But nah, man, he’s a great player and he had a good win today [over Arthur Rinderknech in the second round of Miami]. So I’m happy for him—he’s a cool dude.”
I requested Tiafoe if he thought there was extra room for stunts like Atmane’s, and he heartily assented.
Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: Do you are feeling like tennis has room for extra types of—I don’t even know whether or not to name it ‘mind games,’ no matter that was. More playfulness, getting below guys’ pores and skin or shocking them, no matter it might be?
Frances Tiafoe: Yeah, I believe it’s good, man. I believe it’s good. Just spice issues up. It’s all aggressive nature, man. Gamesmanship—regardless of the case could also be that you just need to name it—I believe its good. I believe it’s good for the game. And additionally it exhibits character, man: guys have character. It’s cool, so allow them to present it in no matter side.
Atmane misplaced the match in Dallas, however had the enjoyable he supposed.
“We we’re dying laughing in the locker room after that,” Atmane instructed Bounces.
Though some may’ve been nervous about an outfit selection that might be learn as cultural appropriation by delicate people, Atmane felt like he was secure to be a bit playful with the jovial Tiafoe.
“I know Frances a bit: we’d chatted a lot before, so I was sure that he would be super happy,” Atmane stated. “And he does represent his country, so for me, I was just grateful, you know, to be able to represent his country as well with him.”
Atmane stated he didn’t hear from any Sierra Leoneans about his tribute although, at the very least past Tiafoe’s personal father.
“Frances’ dad was really happy, also,” Atmane stated of Frances Tiafoe Sr. “It was quite fun. Yeah, it was a very, very fun story.”
The second has develop into a working joke for over a month now.
“And it seems like, also now, we’re still like laughing about it,” Atmane stated. “I am saying to him, every single week: ‘I hope I’m not going to play you because there’s another kit that is going to come.’”
Sure sufficient, Twentieth-ranked Tiafoe and 53rd-ranked Atmane will meet once more within the fourth spherical of the Miami Open on Tuesday night.
“I know in what kit he’s playing right now, for Indian Wells and Miami, so if I play against him, he knows what will happen,” Atmane stated earlier than that match was settled, laughing. “It’s going to be his same one.”
If Atmane commits to the bit, that can imply a sleeveless gentle inexperienced shirt, a hue that Lululemon calls “Ivy Grove.”
Atmane is an attention-grabbing character away from his tactical wardrobe selections as effectively. After his win over Felix Auger-Aliassime within the third spherical right here, he held courtroom for a number of minutes with Tennis Channel’s Steve Weissman in regards to the booming resale marketplace for uncommon Pokémon playing cards.
Before the most important match of his profession to date—a semifinal at ATP-WTA 1000 Cincinnati in opposition to top-ranked Jannik Sinner—Atmane gifted Sinner a Pokémon card as the 2 had been about to stroll out onto courtroom.
“I have a little something for you,” Atmane stated as he pulled the cardboard out of his pocket for a shocked however grateful Sinner.
“I think it was pretty cool to give him a Pokémon card because it was his birthday,” Atmane stated of the reward, which he gave Sinner on the day he turned 24. “And I’m just a nice guy, you know? At the end of the day, we just play tennis.”
And as profiled by ATP Insider Andrew Eichenholz recently, Atmane has developed a deep curiosity in learning metaphysics.
“I was starting to be really interested because I never really paid attention before about the world that we’re living in,” Atmane stated. “So that’s pretty much how I started to be really interested in just some simple questions like, ‘What is life about at the end of the day and what is everything about? Are there any purposes? Is there anything that I should know before I die?’”
There will probably be loads of time for these deeper questions for so long as this universe exists. For now, we simply wait to see what Atmane is sporting subsequent.
UPDATE at 6:30 pm: In the top, Atmane wore nothing notably exceptional. Oh effectively! Still glad to carry you one thing on one of many tour’s extra intriguing new characters.
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