Valentin Vacherot wins 2025 ATP Awards Breakthrough of the Year Award | ATP Tour
ATP Tour
Vacherot wins Breakthrough of the Year Award at 2025 ATP Awards
Monaco shocked the tennis world by winning the Shanghai Rolex Masters
December 10, 2025
Valentin Vacherot can add another major milestone to his stunning finish to the 2025 season: the Monegasque has been named the inaugural winner of the ATP Breakthrough of the Year Award.
The four nominees for the annual Breakthrough Award – Jack Draper, Joao Fonseca, Jakub Mencic and Vaccello – were voted on by the International Tennis Writers Association (ITWA). Vaccello became the lowest-ranked ATP Masters 1000 winner in history when he won the Rolex Shanghai Masters, with the award decision made by 29 members of the ATP First Club (current and former players ranked No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings).
“I am extremely excited to win the Breakthrough of the Year Award for the 2025 season,” Vacherot said. “This is a fantastic achievement for myself and the whole team and it is the culmination of all the work we have done over the years.
“All this work was exposed in October in Shanghai and Paris and now I have achieved the top ranking. I am really happy to receive this award and hope this will lead to more awards in the coming years. Thanks again ATP and see you in 2026.”
Drum roll please…🥁
Introducing your Breakout Player of the Year, @val_vacherot 🤩 Voted by No.1 Club members🥇#ATPAAWARDS pic.twitter.com/XJMRtM88dn
— ATP Tour (@atptour) December 10, 2025
Vaccello entered the Shanghai qualifiers ranked 204th in the world with just one tour-level match win, but he sensationally went on a nine-game winning streak, including against top-20 stars Alexander Bublik, Holger Ruhn and record four-time Shanghai champion Novak Djokovic. In the final, he defeated his cousin, Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech, in one of the most high-profile storylines in recent ATP Tour history.
Later this month, Vaccello and Lindeknecci met again at the Rolex Paris Masters, with Monaco winning again in the quarter-finals. Thanks to a late-season surge, Vaccello, 27, will enter the 2026 season ranked No. 31 in the PIF ATP Rankings, having reached a career-high ranking of No. 30 on November 3 following Paris. As recently as early August, he was still outside the top 250.
