It was a family issue last week in Shanghai, as Valentin Vacherot, trained by his brother, defeated his cousin in one of the most impossible 1000 masters in history.
For Vacherot, who sits at no.40 in the ATP ranking this week (up to 164 points !!), everything has changed. But he is not ready to process the wild scenes that took place over the weekend.
“I don’t know,” he told reporters after defeating Arthur Rinderknech in the final and tripled his career prize in two weeks. “I don’t even understand why I’m sitting here now. Crazy is crazy. I mean, I’m thinking I’m going to start realizing it in the coming days. For now I just want to enjoy the moment.”
With the Tennis Kingdom Roger Federer looking for in the court yard, Vacherot played the perfect final set, hitting 17 winners against two uninhaled mistakes, to overcome his cousin.
The emotions took place up after the match after the two celebrated a victory that was significant for the family, for Monaco (Vacherot is the first player from Monaco to win a master’s degree), and for the millions of fans who were engaged to this fairy tale final.
“I just really became, really exciting in court after the ceremony to be there with Arthur,” Vacherot said. “Just a few unrealistic moments for both of our family. Unfortunately, there was a winner. But our family won, and the sport of tennis also won, because the story we just wrote is amazing, in my opinion. Yes, emotions were only everywhere after the match, yes.”
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Ballers: “Likes like a movie”
Vacherot coach Benjamim Ballerett was also having problems with emotion processing.
“I mean, we knew he could play good tennis, but of course what happened now is just unexpected. We couldn’t believe he could win this tour. It grows in accordance after the match,” he said.
Ballers spoke of his brother’s folly by winning a tour in which Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic were in half of his draw.
“If I go a few days back, he won against Machac, and then he was just waiting for Jannik Sinner to play against sin. And you’re like, ‘good, it’s a great story. He will play the sinner. Maybe he will be destroyed, but it’s a great tour.’
“Then, okay, he does not play a sinner. Only one more match and then one more match. And then he plays Djokovic. And then you say, ‘Okay, incredible. He can play Djokovic once in his life.’ And he ends up beating a Djokovic not 100 percent, but still beating him.
“And just the whole story to play Arthur in the finals. I mean, it’s like everyone to say, like a movie, like a fairy tale. So we feel now, in a fairy tale.”
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The ballers, who previously trained Gilles Muller and Pierre-Hugues Herbert, spoke of what was like starting from zero with Vacherot when he returned from Texas A&M where he played tennis college.
“He returned in the summer of 2021. We went from there, from zero,” he said. “Also also the reason why you see so much emotion today. Because it’s a long way and sometimes you lose some confidence. Loss. It is emotionally difficult because it’s a family, it’s not just a player you work with, who is already hard because you want so much. But when your brother is even more.
“So there were some landing -raising. Being here in front of you guys today as Val is a master champion 1000, it’s just incredible.”
