Atmane outlasts Bellucci in three tiebreaks to reach Almaty quarterfinals

Terence Atmane needed three tiebreaks and every ounce of resistance to get past Mattia Bellucci on Thursday night. After losing the first set, the Frenchman won the last two tiebreaks to beat the Italian 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5) and reach the quarterfinals of the Almaty ATP 250, ending one of the hottest runs on the tour.

It was their first tour-level meeting. Atmane had also beaten Bellucci in qualifying for the 2025 Australian Open, 7-6 (7), 6-4.

A third quarterfinal after a turbulent autumn

Atmane, ranked No. 98, is into the third ATP Tour quarterfinal of his career. The first came at the 2025 Cincinnati Masters 1000, where he beat Taylor Fritz and Holger Rune as a qualifier on his way to the semifinals. The second came in Acapulco this season. He is only the third Frenchman to reach the last eight at this event, after Adrian Mannarino and Corentin Moutet.

The run follows a difficult few weeks. Atmane reached a career-high No. 41 in April but had slipped to the edge of the top 100. Within a week in late September and early October, he retired from matches at the Jingshan Challenger and in Shanghai qualifying, where he also threw his racket toward the stands. He opened his week in Almaty with a 7-6 (5), 6-2 win over Rinky Hijikata, then apologized publicly for his behavior.

“I received a lot of hate, which is pretty normal because I deserve it,” Atmane said on Tuesday. “I was struggling a lot mentally for the past couple of weeks. The season has been very long for me. Shanghai showed me that this kind of behavior has nothing to do on a tennis court at the highest level. I want to deeply apologize to everyone because this is not the type of behavior that I want to show to people.”

Bellucci’s winning run ends

Bellucci, ranked No. 68, had beaten No. 6 seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry 7-6 (5), 2-6, 6-4 in the previous round. He arrived in Almaty on a 13-2 run across all levels, including the Jinan Challenger title last week, and was chasing a personal-best 13th tour-level win of the season.

Atmane will face top seed Daniil Medvedev or Japan’s Sho Shimabukuro in the quarterfinals of the Almaty Open. Atmane and Medvedev have met once, in the first round of the 2024 Australian Open, Atmane’s Grand Slam debut as a qualifier. He took the first set before retiring in the fourth, and Medvedev won 5-7, 6-2, 6-4, 1-0 ret.