{"id":210875,"date":"2025-10-19T11:36:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T11:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/210875\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T11:36:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T11:36:16","slug":"valentin-vacherot-pinpoints-the-moment-he-thought-he-could-actually-win-the-shanghai-masters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/210875\/","title":{"rendered":"Valentin Vacherot pinpoints the moment he thought he could actually win the Shanghai Masters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Follow us on Google Discover <\/a> <\/p>\n

No fan could have foreseen the final matchup at the 2025 Shanghai Masters, which ultimately pitted two cousins ranked outside the top 50 against each other.<\/p>\n

Ranked 54th and 204th, respectively, Arthur Rinderknech and Valentin Vacherot<\/a> won their semifinal clashes with Daniil Medvedev<\/a> and Novak Djokovic<\/a> to set up a family affair in the championship match.<\/p>\n

Vacherot had come through qualifying to reach the main draw in Shanghai and advanced all the way to the final, where he came back from a set down to beat Rinderknech. <\/p>\n

His campaign marked one of the greatest underdog stories in recent memory, and he became the lowest-ranked player ever to win a Masters<\/a> 1000 tournament.<\/p>\n

\"ValentinPhoto by Yin Liqin\/China News Service\/VCG via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Vacherot also became the fifth player in history to clinch a maiden ATP<\/a> title at a Masters 1000 competition. <\/p>\n

The Monegasque qualifier was as shocked as anybody with his heroics in Shanghai, which he discussed on the \u2018Nothing Major\u2019 podcast.<\/p>\n

Valentin Vacherot says when he thought he could win in Shanghai<\/p>\n

When asked when he thought it was possible to win the tournament, Vacherot said: \u201cIt got crazy when I beat Tallon Griekspoor in the round of 16, and I didn\u2019t know what my ranking was going to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t look. I have this ritual that I just look at the end of the tournament. I don\u2019t look win after win. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut the media started saying, \u2018oh, if he wins this next match, he breaks the top 100\u2019, so I started seeing all of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why the win against [Holger] Rune was really special, and I had way more emotions after Rune than after Novak [Djokovic] in the semifinal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was more like respect for Novak, let\u2019s say. But yeah, I would say after the round of 16 I knew that I was on to something big.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what\u2019s crazy is I never thought about winning the tournament until I was in the final. I never thought about it for one second before that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ValentinPhoto by HECTOR RETAMAL\/AFP via Getty ImagesValentin Vacherot\u2019s run to the Shanghai Masters title<\/p>\n

Vacherot\u2019s route to the Shanghai Masters began with two tricky matches in the qualifying stages against Nishesh Basavareddy and Liam Draxl, and he had to come back from a set down against both of them.<\/p>\n

In the main draw, Vacherot earned a comfortable first-round win over Laslo Djere before knocking out seeded star Alexander Bublik and advancing past Tomas Machac via a walkover. <\/p>\n

His fourth-round test came in the form of Tallon Griekspoor, whom he beat in three sets, before knocking out Holger Rune<\/a> in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Vacherot\u2019s biggest win at the event was against Djokovic, having overcome the 24-time major champion 6-3, 6-4 to reach the final. <\/p>\n

Though Rinderknech proved to be a tough task in the title bout, Vacherot produced an incredible display to defeat his cousin and hoist the trophy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover No fan could have foreseen the final matchup at the 2025 Shanghai Masters,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[1308,31742,101,118,56,54,55,85475],"class_list":{"0":"post-210875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-shanghai-masters","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom","15":"tag-valentin-vacherot"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}