Monaco’s Valentin Vacherot, world number 204 and a qualifier, became on Sunday the lowest-ranked player to win a Masters 1000 tournament by defeating his French cousin Arthur Rinderknech (54th) in Shanghai.
Set to reach world number 40 in the next ATP rankings, the 26-year-old right-hander won 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in front of Roger Federer watching from the stands. This marked his ninth consecutive victory in Shanghai, making him the first Monegasque player to win an ATP Tour tournament.
The previous lowest-ranked player to win a Masters 1000, the most important tournaments on the men’s tour after the Grand Slams, was Borna Coric. The Croatian was world number 152 when he won the title in Cincinnati in 2022.
Before Vacherot, only four players had won their first ATP Tour title at a Masters 1000, a tournament category created in 1990.
In recent days, Vacherot had already become the first player from the Principality to reach the quarter-finals, and then the semi-finals, of a main tour tournament.
From the qualifiers to the main draw, the Monegasque player strung together nine consecutive victories in Shanghai, notably scoring a prestigious win against Novak Djokovic (5th) in the semi-finals.
On the other side of the net, Rinderknech (30 years old) achieved the best Masters 1000 run of his career in China and will climb to world number 28 in the next ATP rankings, making him the French No. 2 behind Ugo Humbert, the last French finalist in a Masters 1000 (in November 2024 in Paris).
However, he failed to join Guy Forget, Cédric Pioline, Sébastien Grosjean, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on the list of French Masters 1000 winners, which has remained unchanged since Tsonga’s triumph in Canada in 2014.