MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The tennis moment which most stopped me in my tracks last month came at ATP 500 Dallas, when the unseeded Frenchman Terence Atmane took court to play his first round match against Frances Tiafoe.
Tiafoe was playing his first match since the Australian Open, where he’d reached the third round and showed promising signs for his season.
Hard Conversations and Hard Science, With Frances Tiafoe
Tiafoe had also started in style with his wardrobe, wearing a custom Lululemon outfit in Melbourne which was inspired by the green, white, and blue of the flag of his parents’ homeland of Sierra Leone.
Tiafoe in a promotional photo for Lululemon.
As described on Pause:
“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 new purple Lululemon ensemble for Dallas. But there was Atmane, the Frenchman, wearing the Sierra Leone-inspired outfit across from him.
Technically, Atmane wasn’t wearing the exact same shirt as Tiafoe had worn in Melbourne, but instead the retail version 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 court as the two players were walking out, Tiafoe had no idea what his opponent was wearing, he told Bounces, until he walked to the net for the coin toss and saw his own bespoke outfit staring back at him, an unexpected sight he repeatedly called “crazy”—as was evident from his slacked-jaw, smiling face in footage of the moment.
“It was crazy, it was crazy—I liked it,” Tiafoe told 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 rare tour-level player who gets to pick what he wears: he was dropped by Asics in late 2024 and still does not have an apparel sponsor—unusual among top-100 ATP players.
Atmane’s post in October 2024 about being dropped by Asics.
But while he gets to pick his own looks, Atmane told Bounces that he’d never before pulled any such stunt like he did against Tiafoe in Texas.
“First time, first time,” Atmane said. “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 before the match, Atmane found a Lululemon store near the Dallas tournament and went there himself to do some shopping.
“It’s pretty easy for me to get the fits there,” Atmane said. “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 certainly motivated, and won 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.
“I couldn’t lose—I’ll tell you that much,” Tiafoe told 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 asked Tiafoe if he thought there was more room for stunts like Atmane’s, and he heartily assented.
Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: Do you feel like tennis has room for more sorts of—I don’t even know whether to call it ‘mind games,’ whatever that was. More playfulness, getting under guys’ skin or surprising them, whatever it may be?
Frances Tiafoe: Yeah, I think it’s good, man. I think it’s good. Just spice things up. It’s all competitive nature, man. Gamesmanship—whatever the case may be that you want to call it—I think its good. I think it’s good for the sport. And also it shows personality, man: guys have personality. It’s cool, so let them show it in whatever facet.
Atmane lost the match in Dallas, but had the fun he intended.
“We we’re dying laughing in the locker room after that,” Atmane told Bounces.
Though some might’ve been nervous about an outfit choice that could be read as cultural appropriation by sensitive folks, Atmane felt like he was safe 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 said. “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 said he didn’t hear from any Sierra Leoneans about his tribute though, at least beyond Tiafoe’s own father.
“Frances’ dad was really happy, also,” Atmane said of Frances Tiafoe Sr. “It was quite fun. Yeah, it was a very, very fun story.”
The moment has become a running joke for over a month now.
“And it seems like, also now, we’re still like laughing about it,” Atmane said. “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 enough, 20th-ranked Tiafoe and 53rd-ranked Atmane will meet again in the fourth round of the Miami Open on Tuesday evening.
“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 said before that match was settled, laughing. “It’s going to be his same one.”
If Atmane commits to the bit, that will mean a sleeveless light green shirt, a hue that Lululemon calls “Ivy Grove.”
Frances Tiafoe in his opening match win at the Miami Open over Arthur Cazaux. (Photo by Ben Rothenberg for Bounces)
Atmane is an interesting character away from his tactical wardrobe choices as well. After his win over Felix Auger-Aliassime in the third round here, he held court for several minutes with Tennis Channel’s Steve Weissman about the booming resale market for rare Pokémon cards.
Before the biggest match of his career so far—a semifinal at ATP-WTA 1000 Cincinnati against top-ranked Jannik Sinner—Atmane gifted Sinner a Pokémon card as the two were about to walk out onto court.
“I have a little something for you,” Atmane said as he pulled the card out of his pocket for a surprised but grateful Sinner.
“I think it was pretty cool to give him a Pokémon card because it was his birthday,” Atmane said of the gift, 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 interest in studying metaphysics.
“I was starting to be really interested because I never really paid attention before about the world that we’re living in,” Atmane said. “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 be plenty of time for those deeper questions for as long as this universe exists. For now, we just wait to see what Atmane is wearing next.
UPDATE at 6:30 pm: In the end, Atmane wore nothing particularly remarkable. Oh well! Still glad to bring you something on one of the tour’s more intriguing new characters.
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