Valentin Vacherot is adapting to the ‘amazing’ life as an ATP Tour player | ATP Tour

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Vacherot: 2025 rising star adjusts to ‘good’ life as ATP Tour player

The Monegasque is discussing changes to his plan for the 2026 season

January 19, 2026

Can you have something more beautiful? Valentin Vacherot isn’t too sure, especially when it comes to his stunning victory at the 2025 Rolex Shanghai Masters.

The Monegasque became one of the legends last season after he cruised to victory at China’s ATP Masters 1000 event, upsetting Novak Djokovic along the way. For Vacherot, it was such an important achievement that he has no doubts when he thinks about it in three months, even with the knowledge that pro tennis is a fast world where such heights can be changed quickly.

“Yes, I want to focus on what’s next, but I won’t be angry about Shanghai,” the lowest-ranked Masters 1000 champion in history told ATPTour.com ahead of his Australian Open debut. “It’s amazing what happened and I’m happy to talk about it.

“Immediately it was not easy because the season was not over and I got wild cards in Basel and Paris. When you are in a tournament, and everyone keeps talking about the previous tournament, it is not easy. The good thing is that I also played well in those tournaments, so it helped me to stop for a while in Shanghai and let me focus on the current one.”

Even in the off-season, Vacherot continued to feel the consequences of his actions in China. Before 2025, the Monegasque used to compete in the ATP Challengers until late November or early December before closing each season. Yet by winning Shanghai and later reaching the quarter-finals of the Rolex Paris Masters to beat No.

“The big difference is that by playing very well and on the big Tour in the past months, I ended my season on the second of November,” said the 27-year-old player, who won the Breakthrough of the Year at the 2025 ATP Awards. “That meant two weeks off, and I went back to training on November 15. So I had seven weeks of training, and I’ve never had that before.

“That was amazing to prepare for the big stage. And with everything that happened, let’s just say it was easy to go every day, every morning, to practice. I did six weeks at home and then I left early to come to Australia to do the last eight or nine days of training. However, it was encouraging to wake up after everything I had done.”

Vacherot is doing a lot of groundwork to secure his first full season on the ATP Tour, posting a 64-45 career ATP Challengers record (including four titles) according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. He sees the benefits of planning from now on to being at the top table of tennis going into his 2026 season.

“Sometimes in Challengers, it’s ‘How many weeks do I play?’ Because if you want to play the Challengers every week, you can, but it’s not good,” explained Vacherot, who started 2026 with a first-round exit in Brisbane and a quarter-final in Adelaide. “Now it’s like, ‘Okay, there are those tournaments you have to play’. Sometimes you choose, between those weeks, between two ATP 250s, and that’s it. Because you’re not going to skip any 500 or 1000, you know exactly what you’re going to play. It’s great.

Now it will be widely talked about, ‘Which weeks will I go?’ If I start playing well, I can take weeks off to freshen up again. I think it’s important in the Big Tour to be physically and mentally fresh when you go on the court because everyone is so good. You have to be almost 100 percent every time. ”

Vacherot’s only previous major Grand Slam appearance was as a qualifier at the 2024 Roland Garros. On Monday night at the Australian Open, he will bid for his first major win when he faces Martin Damm in the Melbourne Park qualifier. It would be the latest milestone in a career that has moved so quickly in so little time that Vacherot and his team, led by his coach and half-brother Benjamin Ballaret, have had to adjust their expectations.

“It should have been [set new goals]because two months before the end of the season, I didn’t expect to finish number 31 in the world and play a program full of ATPs,” said Vacherot. The weeks when I feel like I have my chance, when I start playing well at the beginning of the tournament, and use those first matches so that I don’t stop in the first or second round. Try to go to the semifinals or the finals quickly.

“That’s how it works if you want to collect points, you have to go deep in tournaments. I know I won’t be in the quarter-finals or semi-finals every week, because everyone is playing very well… But use the weeks when you feel good, when you are playing well and really try to do as much as possible. Yes, I should have scored a goal in the Grand Slam in a week, if I can win the second Grand Slam. Be good and let me score more goals.”