Valentin Vacherot makes history as Monaco’s first ATP champion
Valentin Vacherot arrived in Shanghai as an afterthought. He was an alternate for qualifying who had won just one ATP Tour match before this month. Two weeks later, the 26-year-old left China as Monaco’s first-ever ATP singles champion and the lowest-ranked Masters 1000 winner in history.
The world No. 204 completed one of tennis’s most improbable title runs on Sunday, rallying past his cousin Arthur Rinderknech 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the Rolex Shanghai Masters final. In doing so, he became only the third qualifier to capture a Masters 1000 crown and the first since 2001 to do so.
“This is unreal,” Vacherot said, shaking his head in disbelief after sealing victory with a forehand winner on his second championship point. “I’m just so happy with what’s happened the last two weeks. There have to be two winners today, one family that won.”
The contest carried an unmistakably personal edge. The cousins, who once played side by side at Texas A&M University in 2018, found themselves sharing opposite sides of one of the sport’s grandest stages.
Both had navigated inspired runs to reach their first Masters final. Rinderknech had beaten Top 20 players Alexander Zverev, Jiri Lehecka, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Daniil Medvedev; Vacherot, meanwhile, had stunned Holger Rune and four-time Shanghai champion Novak Djokovic on his way to the title match.
Rinderknech, the 30-year-old Frenchman, looked composed early on. He broke in the third game with a deft lob and controlled the opening set behind crisp serving and just two unforced errors. But Vacherot, who had come from a set down six times this fortnight, once again refused to yield.
After seven holds to start the second set, he found his opening at 4-3, cracking a backhand down the line to earn the decisive break before serving out the set at love.
From there, the Monegasque qualifier tightened his grip on the match. An early break in the decider put him ahead 2-0, and although Rinderknech fended off seven more break points to stay close, he never threatened on return.
Vacherot won his first 15 service points of the final set and finished with 92 percent of first-serve points won, according to ATP Stats. After two hours and 11 minutes, he raised his arms to the roaring Shanghai crowd before sharing a long embrace with his cousin at the net.
“It was tough trying to play the guy I grew up with, the one I’ve trained with all these years,” Vacherot admitted. “He handled the pressure better in the first set, but I just found a way to turn it around and make the match about my game in the end.”
The victory capped a fortnight of extraordinary resilience and consistency from a player who began the event outside the top 200 and wasn’t originally on the qualifying list. Vacherot entered only after two withdrawals and fought through nine matches — six of which required comebacks from a set down.
Vacherot’s reward is substantial. The new champion will rocket 164 places to world No. 40, which is his first appearance inside both the Top 100 and Top 50. He will also take home $1.12 million in prize money, nearly doubling his career earnings overnight.
