Vacherot wins Breakthrough of the Year in 2025 ATP Awards

  • Posted: Dec 10, 2025

Valentin Vacherot can add another significant milestone to his stunning end to the 2025 season: The Monegasque has been voted as the inaugural winner of Breakthrough of the Year in the ATP Awards.

The four nominees for Breakthrough of the Year — Jack Draper, Joao Fonseca, Jakub Mensik and Vacherot — were determined by an International Tennis Writers’ Association (ITWA) vote. The decision to award Vacherot, who became the lowest-ranked ATP Masters 1000 champion in history with his triumph at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, was made by the 29 members of the ATP No. 1 Club (the current and former players to have reached No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings).

“I’m super happy to have won the Breakthrough of the Year award for the 2025 season,” said Vacherot. “It’s such an amazing achievement for myself and for the whole team, and it’s the product of all the work we have put in all these years.

“All this work came into the light a little bit in October in Shanghai and Paris, and now I have my highest ranking. I’m really happy to have won the award and hopefully this will bring many more for the following years. Thanks again to the ATP and see you in 2026.” 

Vacherot entered qualifying in Shanghai as the World No. 204 and with just one tour-level match win to his name, but he sensationally reeled off nine straight wins, including against Top 20 stars Alexander Bublik, Holger Rune and record four-time Shanghai champion Novak Djokovic. In the final, he defeated his cousin, Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech, in one of the most remarkable storylines in recent ATP Tour history.

Vacherot and Rinderknech faced off again later in the month at the Rolex Paris Masters, where the Monegasque again prevailed en route to the quarter-finals. As a result of his late-season surge, the 27-year-old Vacherot will head into the 2026 season at No. 31 in the PIF ATP Rankings, having hit a career-high No. 30 on 3 November following Paris. He had been outside the Top 250 as recently as early August.

[NEWSLETTER FORM]

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