How Joao Fonseca played a role in Valentin Vacherot winning the Shanghai Masters without competing in a match

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Joao Fonseca did not play a single point at the Shanghai Masters this year.

Fonseca was praised for his performance at the Laver Cup, with the teenager winning his only match in San Francisco.

The Brazilian is one of the most talked about prospects on the ATP Tour, with Fonseca predicted to become a Grand Slam champion.

However, Fonseca did not showcase this talent at the Shanghai Masters this year after withdrawing from the event.

Joao Fonseca withdrawing from the Shanghai Masters enabled Valentin Vacherot to win the title

Fonseca was praised for his decision to withdraw from the Shanghai Masters, as he decided to make changes to his schedule.

Someone who will definitely be happy with Fonseca’s decision is Valentin Vacherot, who won the Shanghai Masters in shocking fashion.

Vacherot was the world number 204 before the Shanghai Masters this year, and was unable to even get into the qualifying draw.

However, after players started to withdraw, Vacherot began to get closer to entering the qualifying draw.

Then Fonseca withdrew from the main draw, which enabled Italian Luca Nardi to get direct entry and make space for Vacherot in qualifying, and the rest was history.

Culminating in Vacherot’s final victory over cousin Arthur Rinderknech, the Monegasque won nine consecutive matches to become the lowest-ranked Masters 1000 champion in history.

Vacherot has now shot up the ATP rankings, and having trailed Fonseca by 161 places prior to the Shanghai Masters, he now leads the 19-year-old by five ranking spots.

What is next for Joao Fonseca after electing to miss the Shanghai Masters?

Instead of competing in Asia, Fonseca has decided to focus on the European indoor hard court swing, entering four upcoming tournaments.

The first of these tournaments will see Fonseca make his debut at the European Open, the ATP 250 tournament in Brussels which sees Lorenzo Musetti as the top seed.

This will be the first time in Fonseca’s career that he is seeded at an ATP tournament, and he is in the same half of the draw as Felix Auger-Aliassime, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Zizou Bergs.

Fonseca also faces a tough first round draw against Botic van de Zandschulp, who has wins over Carlos Alcaraz, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

This will be a second meeting between Fonseca and Van de Zandschulp, with the former winning their only previous meeting in the Davis Cup last year.