{"id":351903,"date":"2025-08-17T15:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T15:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/351903\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T15:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T15:13:09","slug":"jannik-sinner-handed-rare-gift-by-terence-atmane-before-dishing-out-cincinnati-defeat-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/351903\/","title":{"rendered":"Jannik Sinner handed rare gift by Terence Atmane before dishing out Cincinnati defeat | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was a birthday with a difference for world No.1 <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" title=\"Jannik Sinner\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/jannik-sinner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jannik Sinner<\/a> on Saturday. The Italian celebrated turning 24 in style, beating qualifier Terence Atmane 7-6 6-2 to set up a clash with <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" title=\"Carlos Alcaraz\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/carlos-alcaraz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> in the final of the Cincinnati Open.<\/p>\n<p>Not before his opponent handed him a special gift, though. The French qualifier has had a tournament to remember in Ohio, <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/tennis\/2096013\/Terence-Atmane-Cincinnati-Open-sponsors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">beating Taylor Fritz and Holger Rune<\/a> en route to the final four. Before facing Sinner, he further endeared himself to fans with a heartwarming gesture.<\/p>\n<p>While the pair were in the tunnel pre-match, Atmane handed Sinner a Pokemon trading card as a birthday present. The 23-year-old is known to be an avid collector of the cards, and his gift drew a warm smile from Sinner.<\/p>\n<p>Afterwards, he referenced his opponent\u2019s kindness, saying: &#8220;I was talking to him a little bit in the locker room. He has one of the biggest collections of Pokemon cards, and I&#8217;m very lucky that I got one of his ones.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was just a nice moment before a match, we didn&#8217;t know each other at all. So, it was a nice moment. The card was a kind of Pikachu. It said 30 damage to itself, so I don&#8217;t know if that is good or not.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The incident set the tone for an entertaining opening set as relations between the two opponents stayed respectful. The top seed eventually came through in a tie break, serving an ace at 6-4 up to wrap it up.<\/p>\n<p>The four-time Grand Slam champion then upped the ante, breaking at 2-1 in the second set before later setting up three match points at 5-2. Atmane kept fighting, saving the first two, before a forehand winner ended matters.<\/p>\n<p>Sinner further marked his birthday after the victory. He was seen posing with team members with a birthday cake, and will now enjoy a day off before taking on Alcaraz on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a birthday with a difference for world No.1 Jannik Sinner on Saturday. The Italian celebrated turning&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[4719,4718,124314,124311,124312,124313,79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-351903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp-tour","9":"tag-jannik-sinner","10":"tag-jannik-sinner-pokemon","11":"tag-sinner-atmane","12":"tag-sinner-birthday","13":"tag-sinner-cincinnati-open","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tennis","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115044758554959524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}