ATP tour
Vacherot wins Breakthrough of the Year at the 2025 ATP Awards
Monegasque stunned the tennis world with his victory at the Rolex Shanghai Masters
December 10, 2025
Valentin Vacherot can add another major milestone to his stunning end to the 2025 season: the Monegasque has been named the first winner of Breakthrough of the Year at the ATP Awards.
The four nominees for Breakthrough of the Year – Jack Draper, Joao Fonseca, Jakub Mensik and Vacherot – were determined by a vote of the International Tennis Writers’ Association (ITWA). The decision to award Vacherot, who became the lowest-ranked ATP Masters 1000 champion in history with his victory at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, was made by the 29 members of the ATP No. 1 Club (the current and former players who have reached No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings).
“I am thrilled to have won the Breakthrough of the Year award for the 2025 season,” said Vacherot. “It’s a great achievement for myself and for the whole team, and it’s the result of all the work we’ve put in all these years.
“All this work came to light a bit in October in Shanghai and Paris, and now I have my highest ranking. I am very happy to have won the award and hopefully this will bring many more for the coming years. Thanks again to the ATP and see you in 2026.”
Drum roll please… 🥁
Meet your breakthrough player of the year, @val_vaherot 🤩 as voted by members of the number 1 club 🥇#ATPAwards pic.twitter.com/XJMRtM88dn
— ATP tour (@atptour) December 10, 2025
Vacherot went into qualifying in Shanghai ranked No. 204 in the world and with just one tour-level match win to his name, but he sensationally recorded nine consecutive victories, 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 that month at the Rolex Paris Masters, where the Monegasque once again had the upper hand on his way to the quarter-finals. As a result of his late-season surge, the 27-year-old Vacherot will enter the 2026 season at No. 31 in the PIF ATP Rankings, having reached a career-high No. 30 on November 3 after Paris. At the beginning of August he was still outside the Top 250.
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