Death, taxes and meltdowns from
Terence Atmane is what one social media said as the Frenchman once again courted controversy for racquet abuse during a
Challenger Tour match on Monday.
While the world was going into a state of flux over power outages in Europe, Guangzhou was one of the only tournaments still in play with Terence Atmane facing home hope Rigele Te.
But Atmane was broken in the opening set after having three set points on return at 5-4 and spurning them. Obviously frustrated, he very nearly got defaulted as he hurled his racquet across the court.
Once Te had managed to seal the break, Atmane violently flung his racquet and one of the ball kids ran to go and pick it up instead of Atmane being reprimanded.
It is not the first time that Atmane has courted controversy though. Last year, he smashed a ball in frustration and hit a spectator but bizarrely was not disqualified for the incident which started a lot of conjecture about the incident at Roland Garros.
It seems though in similar vein to Andrey Rublev though old habits die hard and he was a very lucky man not to be defaulted. He ironically went on to win after seeing him off 7-5, 3-6, 1-6 and will now play Last 16 tomorrow. He has been in good form winning a Challenger in Busan just last week so will be one of the favourites to win it this week.