Valentin Vacherot went on a historic run to winning the Shanghai Masters title back in October.
Vacherot has never won a Grand Slam match before and was ranked outside the top 200 ahead of the Shanghai Masters.
However, after coming through qualifying, Vacherot beat Novak Djokovic and his cousin Arthur Rinderknech en route to winning the Shanghai Masters.
Vacherot is set to keep his team the same in 2026, and his former coach Steve Denton has now revealed how he felt watching the Monegasque at the Shanghai Masters.
Steve Denton explains how he felt watching Valentin Vacherot at the Shanghai Masters
Before becoming a professional tennis player, Vacherot attended Texas A&M University alongside his cousin, Rinderknech.
When playing tennis in Texas, both Vacherot and Rinderknech were coached by former tennis player Steve Denton, who still holds an unwanted tennis record to this day.
Denton made a recent appearance on The Inside-In Tennis Podcast, and was asked about Vacherot and whether he was surprised by his run to the Shanghai Masters.
While Denton claimed he always knew how Vacherot was as a tennis player, he admitted he did not expect him to surpass the quarterfinals and beat Djokovic.
“I knew he was a very good player,” said Denton. “In his situation, he had done the preparation for this in the year before. He had won three Challengers in Thailand under those really extreme conditions of heat and humidity and then he won one in India. And then he hurt himself at Wimbledon, didn’t know how to run on the grass, slips and falls in the last round of qualies and hurts his knee, so is out for a while as a result of that.
“Sort of recovers from that and then obviously gets his chance…they had gone over there to play Challengers, he had gone over there as maybe the seventh or eighth alternate. So they had come early in preparation for all the Challengers that were subsequent to Shanghai and so he was there and he signed in and then I think it was [Luca] Nardi, someone who was six or seven ahead of him as an alternate pulled out and he ended up getting in, which opened up the door.
“And he had played all those tournaments in those tough conditions, he has a tough match with [Nishesh] Basavareddy, almost loses, two points away from losing to [Liam] Draxl next round as well in the qualies and then he gets in the main draw and now he starts playing with house money and he’s beating all of these guys.
“And one of the things about Val that I always loved, was that even when he played for me here, he always went for his shots under pressure. He had no fear in going for the shots, in fact there’s some players who will under hit when they get in those situations and other players will over hit. And he was maybe more along the lines overhitting sometimes, but he’s managed to learn how to handle that a little bit better and obviously he has a big game, so he can put his game up against anybody’s and still be able to dictate to a certain extent, in other words it’s really on his racket a lot of the time.
“And as a result of that he went on that run and just started winning match after match after match. You know, I was thinking about the quarterfinals, ‘Oh that’s a great tournament man, you did really good’, and both he and Arthur I was really happy…Val’s on the other side of the draw and he’s playing Djokovic and I’m thinking, ‘Great tournament man, you did really good, you did great’, and I remember when I played against top players like that and you can see how respectful he was of Novak, playing against the GOAT, and he was able to just play tennis and play the ball and not who was on the other side of the net. Then they get in the final against each other, I had a lump in my throat for a week, just kind of watching those guys and how proud I was of them.”
Who do you think can win a Grand Slam for the first time in 2026?
The American player that Steve Denton thinks Valentin Vacherot has had a big impact on
Vacherot’s victory at the Shanghai Masters has not only benefitted himself, but also other ATP players according to Denton.
Denton specifically named another Texas University alumni in Patrick Kypson, the American player who is ranked outside the top 100.
“I would venture to tell you that that has had a big impact on Patrick Kypson, because he was here with those guys and he was playing ahead of them,” added Denton.
“So, ‘If they’re doing that kind of stuff, then why not me?’, and that’s the kind of thing that happens. You know, you gain some momentum, you gain some confidence and you just never know and those guys ended up playing that level.”
Who will be the biggest disappointment at the 2026 Australian Open?
Denton could be right in this claim, as since the Shanghai Masters, Kypson has earned an Australian Open wildcard after winning two ATP Challenger titles.
Kypson will be in the Australian Open main draw next year alongside Vacherot, who will look to continue climbing the rankings by winning his first Grand Slam match.
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