There is a big story emerging at the 2025 Shanghai Masters. For the second time in two months, there is a surprising semifinalist in the men’s draw of an ATP 1000 series event. After Terence Atmane of France reached the semifinals of the 2025 Cincinnati Open this past August, Valentin Vacherot of Monaco, the 204th ranked player in the world, is in the semifinals of the most prestigious tennis tournament on the Asian continent.
To put Vacherot’s accomplishment into perspective, there has only been one player ever ranked lower to have reached a Masters 1000 series semifinal. That is Chris Woodruff of the United States, who was ranked 550th in the world when he reached the semifinals of Indian Wells in 1999. (Ironically the only reason why Woodruff was ranked so low is because he only played one match in 1998. Woodruff had won the 1997 Canadian Open in Montreal).
In Shanghai so far, Vacherot has beaten four seeded players. He upset the 14th seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the second round, the 20th seed Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic, 6-0, 3-1 in the third round (Machac withdrew due to heat exhaustion), the 27th seed Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 in the fourth round, and the 10th seed Holger Rune of Denmark, 2-6, 7-6, 6-4 in the quarterfinals. Next up for Vacherot in the semifinals, just so happens to be 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia.
The fact that Vacherot is in the semifinals is stunning when you consider the fact he has only played one match at a major in his career. He lost 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain in the first round of the 2024 French Open.
