Inside Terence Atmane’s quantum physics obsession & discovering how the universe fits together | ATP Tour

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Inside Atmane’s quantum physics obsession & discovering how the universe complements each other

The Frenchman explains his main interests off the court

March 23, 2026

Last year, Terence Atmane was at his parents’ home in northern France for a visit. One evening due to jet lag, the Frenchman was hanging out with his family’s cats while watching a physics documentary starring Morgan Freeman on Netflix.

“I was just watching this movie on TV, trying to help myself to sleep,” Atmane told ATPTour.com. “At the end of the day, it didn’t help me sleep because after watching it, for a week, I watched everything I could watch about quantum physics.”

The 24-year-old Lefty, who is in the fourth round of the Miami Open presented by Ita, is happy to use his free time to learn new things. Many fans know about Atmane’s Pokemon collection and in the future, developing proper cooking skills is on his radar. But right now, quantum physics is front and center.

“I started to be interested because I had never paid attention to the world we live in,” said Atmane. So that’s how I became interested in just a few simple questions like, ‘What is life at the end of the day and what is it all about? Are there any goals? Is there anything I should know before I die?’”

Atmane soon realized that the more he studied quantum physics, the less he knew about the world around him.

“I started reading a lot of books about it. I also started reading a lot of biographies about physics and other physicists. The more I know about this kind of stuff, the more interesting it becomes,” said Atmane. “For example, I like to see people like Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, what they do, why they do this, what they do to get and how they get all these kinds of things.

“The more I learned about this, the more I felt like I didn’t know anything.

The No. 53 player in the PIF ATP Rankings came onto fans’ radar last August at the Cincinnati Open, where as World No. 136 he advanced to the semi-finals with consecutive Top-10 victories against Taylor Fritz and Holger Rune. After annoying Rune, Atmane wrote “Fermi’s paradox?!” on the camera lens.

“I became interested in everything about paradoxes, questions, questions in physics, and that’s how I came out last year in Cincinnati with Fermi’s Paradox when I tried to study. [about] this was a few days before the tournament,” said Atmane. “I thought it was great to say it on camera. And I did another one in Acapulco, but they didn’t put it online.

“It was something that Albert Einstein found out back then. He found that in the universe, time is equal to space, and I think it was really interesting to know this kind of little information that doesn’t look very interesting at first, but when you really get into it, it turns out to be really interesting.”

Terence Atmane takes notes on his quantum physics studies in a journal.” style=”width:100%;” src=”https://www.atptour.com/-/media/images/news/2026/03/23/23/01/atmane-quantum-physics-book.jpg”>
^{A look inside the quantum physics journal of Atmane.}

It all started with Atmane watching an hour and a half documentary about the solar system, gravity, why it takes the Earth 24 hours to make a full circle and how other planets affect the Earth’s orbit.

“[I thought about] how interesting it is to see that the solar system is not what we think. It’s not just some random planets making some cycles around it. It’s a whole movement. It’s a way,” said Atmane. “The world is moving fast in space, so it was very interesting to know because I didn’t know. I thought everything was in the same place, but it’s not at all true, and that’s when I really got interested.”

Now the Frenchman, who upset World No. 8 Felix Auger-Aliassime in the third round of Miami on Monday, he carries a small textbook on quantum physics and a journal where he makes notes and draws diagrams to help further his understanding of the subject. Learning how everything in the universe fits together certainly keeps him busy off the court.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have time to do proper studies, so I have to study by myself,” said Atmane. “But I think [quantum physics and cooking] Those are the two biggest things I want to learn this year. I will try to keep this encouragement and dedication to everything around me. That will be a great challenge.”