New footage has emerged showing French tennis star Terence Atmane throwing his racquet into the crowd while playing his opening qualifying round at this year’s Shanghai Masters. Despite the violence with which Atmane recklessly chucked his racquet towards a packed stand of spectators after losing a point to opponent Bernard Tomic, the 24-year-old remarkably avoided being defaulted. Instead, Atmane retired down 5-3 to Tomic in the third set to hand the Australian the win, in his second-consecutive deciding-set retirement of this autumn’s Asian swing. Former Cincinnati Masters finalist Atmane cut an explosive figure for the duration of the match, repeatedly crashing his racquet down into the net when upset with his uneven form and hitting balls out of the stadium. But although he will likely receive a hefty fine from the tournament for his meltdown, Atmane’s on-court display raises questions over fairness in tennis’ rules around racquet abuse. Daniil Medvedev was defaulted on the same day as Atmane in his Beijing semi-final against Novak Djokovic for hitting a ball into the stands unthinkingly, where it caught a man in the face. Terence Atmane flung his racquet into the stands in a dangerous meltdown while qualifying for this year’s Shanghai Masters Atmane was fortunate not to be thrown out of the tournament in Shanghai (Source: Instagram/Terence Atmane)Although the man escaped serious injury, he was taken to hospital as a precaution. Medvedev, who was deeply apologetic and did not protest his sanction, later sent the man one of his racquets signed with the message ‘I am sorry’. With his default, Medvedev was stripped of all of his prize money won for reaching the final four, and any ranking points gained – a bitter blow as the current world No9 battles for a place at this year’s end-of-season ATP Finals next month. The wording of the rule is clear that players shall not ‘violently, dangerously, or with anger hit, kick or throw a racket or other equipment’ on court, but its application is dizzyingly inconsistent. Atmane’s slingshotted racquet is far weightier than a loose ball and was tossed with more aggression than Medvedev’s misdirected but ultimately reckless shot. But unlike the combustible Russian, Atmane did not injure anyone in the crowd. Critics of the rules’ application believe however that this should not be a barrier to a player getting defaulted, as without the high stakes of lost points and earnings, players might not change their on-court behaviour. Certainly, there are recent examples of near-misses like Atmane’s where players have skirted punishment. Earlier this year at the Hamburg Open, Daniel Altmaier was only handed a code violation for kicking his racquet into the crowd, where it was caught by quick-thinking fans. Like Medvedev, 12th-seed Belinda Bencic accidentally hit a spectator without looking at this year’s US Open during her match against Yulia Putintseva but was deemed by the umpire to have done so ‘unintentionally’. Her opponent argued that she had still ‘hit someone’ but the chair umpire’s decision appeared to hinge on whether the person was injured. They weren’t, and Bencic stayed on-court. There is no consistency between tournaments either. Djokovic made for a sympathetic opponent for Medvedev – not least because it helped him on his way to claiming a seventh-straight China Open title – having been penalised at the 2020 US Open for accidentally striking a line judge in the throat with a loose ball hit in frustration. ‘It’s a bit of a shock to be honest. I hope that person is not badly injured,’ he said in the aftermath of his unorthodox victory. ‘I also feel sorry for Daniil. I know exactly how he feels to be disqualified in a big match.’I am sure that Daniil did not want to do this intentionally.’Lorenzo Musetti however escaped punishment for the same offence at the 2025 French Open when he kicked a ball which struck a line judge on the shoulder. On the same day, Daniil Medvedev was defaulted for hitting the ball into the stands and injuring a spectator Last year at a tournament in China Atmane threw his racquet to the back of the court – and was allowed to continueMonday’s incident confirmed too that Atmane continues to struggle keeping his temper in check. At the 2024 French Open during his first-round clash with Sebastian Ofner, he was forced to apologise for hitting a fan with an angry ball – another instance where he was allowed to stay on-court. A year later, at a Challenger event in Guangzhou, he threw his racquet to the back of the court. But he was allowed to continue, and won the match. Following his defeat to Tomic, Atmane explained that his outbursts had stemmed from his insecurity of dropping out of the top 100. ‘Being inside the top 40 a month ago and seeing myself almost out of the top 100 made me way more stressed and pressured than I could possibly imagine,’ he admitted. ‘It doesn’t excuse me for my bad behaviour, and after considering what happened on court for these past weeks, I’ve decided to take a step back and rebuild myself from 0.’Hinting at health issues which were physical rather than ‘mental’, Atmane also shared that he is considering ending his season early.