Valentin Vacherot was named the Breakthrough of the Year Award recipient by the ATP on Wednesday.
Vacherot started the season at No. 140 in the world and briefly fell as low as No. 267 before his surge began. The 27-year-old from Monaco soared all the way from 240th to 40th with his shocking run to the Shanghai Masters titles in October.
“I’m super happy to have won the Breakthrough of the Year award for the 2025 season,” Vacherot stated. “It’s such an amazing achievement for myself and for the whole team, and it’s the product of all the work we have put in all these years.
“All this work came into the light a little bit in October in Shanghai and Paris, and now I have my highest ranking. I’m really happy to have won the award and hopefully this will bring many more for the following years. Thanks again to the ATP and see you in 2026.”
It remains to be seen to what extent Vacherot is able to build on his Shanghai success, but early returns are encouraging. One week later the former college player (Texas A&M) lost to Basel top seed Taylor Fritz 4-6, 7-6(4), 7-5; he then made a run to the Paris Masters quarterfinals.
The 2025 ATP Awards were announced throughout this week. Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori were named the Fans’ Favorite doubles team, Andrey Rublev was the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award winner, and Carlos Alcaraz earned Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award honors for the second time in his career.