Racquets and Relationships
Vacherot: ‘Your partner is really, really important’
Monegasque star Vacherot speaks to ATPTour.com about partner Emily Snyder’s importance
April 08, 2026
Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
Valentin Vacherot and Emily Snyder celebrate the Monegasque’s 2025 Shanghai triumph.
By Andrew Eichenholz
When Valentin Vacherot shocked the tennis world by winning the Rolex Shanghai Masters title last September, partner Emily Snyder was right by his side.
It is fitting that one of the Monegasque star’s biggest matches since will be at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, within walking distance of where they met nearly four years ago. The home favourite will take on fourth seed Lorenzo Musetti in the second round of the clay-court ATP Masters 1000 event Wednesday evening.
In 2022, the former Texas A&M University standout was home injured, struggling with a stress fracture in his foot. Snyder, then a University of North Carolina undergraduate student studying abroad in Barcelona, spent a weekend in Monaco with friends.
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The pair met one evening that weekend and would keep in touch, connecting for short periods whenever possible over the following months. Snyder eventually moved to the Principality to attend the International University of Monaco, and she has been a key support system for Vacherot since.
“Of course you need the right person,” Vacherot told ATPTour.com. “Tennis takes 90 per cent of our time in the year. If you want to be good in tennis, you’ve got to live tennis, you’ve got to wake up tennis, you’ve got to eat tennis, and do most of the things you do in your day to be good for your career.
“Your partner has got to deal with that and be okay with that. And luckily for me, my girlfriend is amazing with that. She just never complains about how much time I’m training and everything… When it’s probably 325 days out of 365, it gets pretty long sometimes. Thanks to her for that. It’s really important.”
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The Monegasque player explained that even with a team around him on the road — as well as having cousin Arthur Rinderknech on the ATP Tour — having his partner in his corner off the court is vital.
“I know if I spend time alone, I’m going to spend time alone for for two days or for one week or for 10 days, and then I’ll see her again in 10 days and I say I’ll enjoy even more the time I get with her,” Vacherot said. “So your partner is just really, really important.”
Snyder has also played a pivotal role in helping her partner grow his profile. When Vacherot began Shanghai qualifying last September, he was the No. 204 player in the PIF ATP Rankings. Now he is at a career-high World No. 23 with fans throughout the world.
“She knows about it. That’s what she studied,” Vacherot said. “I’m not really big into social media at all, but I started to develop a bit, mostly since Shanghai.
“I didn’t have that many followers before and now it’s grown way more. It’s easier to do some stuff when you get a a bit more views, and she’s helped me sometimes to take pictures, [deciding] what caption to pick, which picture to put, I’ll always ask her. She helps me for all those little steps.”
Vacherot admitted that professional tennis is an endeavour in which most things are centered around a player’s ability to succeed on the court. So it is important for him to also return the favour to Snyder whenever possible.
“When I have time, the first day off, [it is about] what we can do together to just gets [away from] tennis. And I know that’s the moment she loves. It’s important for her,” Vacherot said. “In Acapulco, for one of the first times we went golfing. She’s a bit better than me — I’m really bad — but we had a great time, we laughed a lot.
“We always go to dinner with everyone. Once in a while, we change, we go to dinner just us two. We try to just even have dates during some tournaments just to change up and feel like [we are] at home. I just thank her after most of my matches just for supporting me. That’s the easiest to do… She supports me, so the minimum I can do is just thank her for that.”