Birthday boy Jannik Sinner ends epic run of Pokemon collecting high IQ French revelation Terence Atmane to reach Cincinnati final

Jannik Sinner will contest yet another big final. The World No.1 has ended the excellence of Terence Atmane who has become a real star this week and for many reasons. But he lost in the semi-finals of the Cincinnati Open 7-6, 6-2.

Atmane has gone up an astonishing 67 spots from World No.118 to World No.69 as of next week. He also came all the way from qualifying to the main draw and reached the semi-final. This was with no sponsor when it came to his kit and he will now have companies certainly wanting to sponsor him.

He went into his tie with Sinner having confirmed that he is basically a genius as per a test from the French Tennis Federation and he is also known as a Pokemon card collector so he imparted what on paper is a random gift but likely worth a lot of money in a rare Pokemon card to Sinner in the tunnel before the game to celebrate his birthday.

But while Atmane gifted that to Sinner, the World No.1 was locked in and wasn't really in the mood to give out gifts to his opponent who now breaks the world's top 100 for the first time ahead of the US Open. Celebrating his 24th birthday, he reaches an eighth Masters 1000 final. He did not face a break point and records a 200th tour-level win on hard courts. His win streak now sits at 26 matches on the surface.

He jousted with Atmane in the early stages with the tricky French lefty taking him all the way to a tie-break. He dropped three consecutive aces on Sinner in the seventh game and his serving display in the opening stages was truly majestic. But Sinner has a knack of flicking the switch. Switch he flicked albeit not off his own doing. The Frenchman hit his first double fault of the match to open the tie-break which proved to be the difference maker.

Sinner brushed aside doubts early in the second where his serve appeared to falter. He dropped just one of 21 points in the opening set but he was forced into deuce to begin the second. He began to make ground in the second set and breezed through in the end to dispel any doubt.

Next for Sinner, a tie against his fierce rival Carlos Alcaraz. Or it will be Alexander Zverev in what is a truly mouthwatering occasion. The Italian trails Alcaraz by 1,290 points in the Race to Turin with both players battling it out for Year End World No.1 honours. But while we will hope for the Sinalcaraz match again, Zverev has been superb this week and will hope to put a dampener on the party and further his own ambitions. Zverev had World No.1 in the palm of his hands at the turn of the year when Sinner got banned but spurned it and will hope to not have the same issues again in finding success once more. A great match though awaits whoever Sinner faces.

For now Atmane's story is over, but Sinner as he enters his 24th year enters yet another chapter of his storied career thus far.

“Very very tough challenge. Every time you play someone completely new, it’s very difficult," said Sinner post match. "Playing against these guys in the later stages of tournaments makes it even more difficult. The pressure is higher, you know they deserve to be there. He’s beaten incredible players to reach the semifinals. I knew I have to be very careful. My mindset today was in a good spot. I handled the situations on the court very well. He was serving incredibly well the first set. He has huge, huge potential, I think we saw this throughout the tournament. I wish him only the best. From my side I’m very happy to be in the finals again.”