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12 Oct 2025 | 17.44
No one in the world could be happier than Valentin Vacherot after winning the ATP Shanghai, his first ATP title, and on top of that, against his cousin Arthur Rinderknech (4-6, 6-3, 6-3). As if that weren't enough, the Monegasque jumps from the 204th position in the ATP rankings to the fortieth in the world.
However, there is possibly one person who might be the second happiest person in the world, and that is Benjamin Balleret. The brother and coach of Valentin Vacherot knows better than anyone how challenging it is to deal with defeats, expectations, and hope. Neither he nor anyone believed that his pupil would win the ATP Shanghai or even eliminate players of the caliber of Alexander Bublik, Tallon Griekspoor, Holger Rune, or Novak Djokovic.
Therefore, Balleret spoke at the post-match press conference about how he and Vacherot have experienced these two weeks of sheer madness in Shanghai. As well as the beginning of their coach-player relationship and the importance of having a team behind you to lean on.
This is what Valentin Vacherot's coach said after winning the 2025 ATP Shanghai
"The feeling is incredible. Simply being an ATP champion, when so many good players with a 50-year career do not have an ATP title. So having one right now for Vacherot is incredible. But more than that, what he has done this week, well, we knew he could play good tennis, but of course, what has happened now is simply unexpected. We couldn't believe he could win this tournament. But match after match, the situation has improved."
"If I remember a few days back, he defeated Machac and then was waiting for Jannik Sinner. And one thinks: 'Well, it's a great story. He will play against Sinner. Maybe he will be crushed, but it's a great tournament.' So, well, he doesn't play against Sinner. It's just another match and then another one. And then he plays against Novak Djokovic. And then you say: 'Well, incredible. He can play against Djokovic once in his life.' And he ends up beating a Djokovic who is not at a hundred percent, but still defeats him. And finally, the final against Arthur Rinderknech and all the story behind it. It's like everyone says, like a movie, like a fairy tale. This is how we feel right now, like in a fairy tale.
A final where Vacherot went from less to more
"I think at the beginning of the match, Arthur was playing better, had better energy. The second set was a bit weird. Many serves. Few rallies. From 4-3 in the second set, that's where Vachelot's magic emerged. The end of the second set and the third set were simply incredible. I already saw him with that huge physique, you know? But doing it at the center court of Shanghai in the final against his cousin, you know, is something else. We know he can be like that. We've seen him play like that."
"But not for two games, not for three games, but for almost an hour to end the match like that. In the end, he had, I don't know, about eight break points in the third set. He could have done it, it could have been 6-1 for Vacherot. But Arthur kept fighting at 4-3. You never know what could have happened with two good returns from Arthur, or maybe with a slightly less good serve."
The moment Vacherot decided to be a tennis player
"When he turned 18, he had to make a couple of decisions. He wanted to be a professional tennis player, but he didn't have the mental or physical maturity. He was very thin. He wasn't developed physically. The family discussed it, and we advised him to go to the United States to university. To learn tennis, practice it, you know, to have a great coach like Steve Denton. So he listened to us, although it would take him years to develop to reach the top 100 or top 50. That was my feeling."
"I always had in mind, when he returned from university, if he still wanted to be a professional, I wanted to help him because he's my brother. And I think that doesn't matter. That is, whether you have the best quality or not, if you really work and desire it with all your might, you have to go all the way. It doesn't matter if you reach the 200th position or the top 50, if you want to reach it, you strive to your maximum potential. You never know what can happen. If you get to 200, you can reach 150. If you get to 150, you can reach 100. Just always set yourself a goal."
They got to work in 2021
"So yes, in the end, he returned in the summer of 2021. We started from scratch. That's why you see so much emotion today, too. It's been a long journey, and sometimes we lost a bit of faith. Bad defeats. It's emotionally difficult because it's family, not just working with a player, which is already difficult because, well, you wish for it a lot. But when it's your brother, it's even harder. So there were ups and downs. To be here in front of you today, with Vacherot being the Masters 1000 champion, is simply incredible."
Vacherot's short-term future
"Next will be the tournaments where Vacherot always wanted to be. The big ones. I mean, the real ones, you know? That's what we said when we congratulated him right after the match. But we've already told him that we want to continue. I said right away, 'Incredible. Let's keep going. Let's go back. Let's go back full throttle.' And we'll see what happens. But that's how I see it, you know, just play your career a hundred percent, without looking back. Just work, and we'll see in the end."
The importance of having the right people around you
"Our role as a coach and as a team is to support him, encourage him, and tell him that he believes he can be among the top 50. Because I think many players stop believing. When you play tennis, you lose every week. So you always have to believe. I think that's extremely important."
"But the team, the people, and the family around you always tell you things like: 'You will achieve it. If you win a match, it's not enough, you need another one.' That's okay, but let's try again. Let's try again. That's how we work as a team, to drive him forward. And, of course, in a week, you know, this leap is... I don't know. Like I said, it's not something we were thinking about. It's more like if Vacherot always took very small steps, never big ones, step by step. And right now, this has happened, so I don't know what else I can say," says a Benjamin Balleret proud of his player Valentin Vacherot's feat, but above all of his brother's effort and unwavering faith.
This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Balleret, hermano y entrenador de Vacherot: "Partimos de cero, ha sido un largo camino y a veces perdimos un poco la fe"
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