Valentin Vacherot is the toast of tennis after winning the Shanghai Masters to complete a truly remarkable sporting story.
In truth, they make films about this sort of stuff, and perhaps Luca Nardi will be receiving a gift or a firm handshake from Vacherot the next time he sees him, given that it was his promotion to the main draw that saw the Monegasque earn a crack at the qualifiers at the Shanghai Masters.
The rest, as they say, is history, with Vacherot beating Arthur Rinderknech – his cousin – in the final, to get his hands on comfortably the biggest prize of his whole career.
Vacherot was watched by Roger Federer in the final, and that proved a nerve-racking moment for the player who was making his first appearance in the final of a Masters 1000 event.
Records tumbled for Vacherot at this event, and as the new world number 40, he can look forward to getting more exposure next season by automatically qualifying for some of the bigger events on the tour.
Vacherot isn’t the first qualifier to ever win a Masters 1000 event, however, and the player who managed that feat had a story that was arguably more remarkable than the Shanghai Masters champion.
Roberto Carretero was the first qualifier to win an ATP Masters 1000 event
You have to go all the way back to 1996 to find a qualifier winning a Masters 1000 event for the first time, with Carretero claiming glory at the Hamburg Open.
Carretero’s story was certainly more impressive than Vacherot’s and definitely proved more surprising given that his victory moved him up to world number 58, which would prove to be the highest ranking of his whole career.
Carretero beat 1996 Wimbledon finalist Mal Washington in round two before playing Frenchman Arnaud Boetsch and Australian player Gilbert Schaller.
In the semifinal, he came through against the number three seed, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, before beating Alex Corretja in the final by three sets to one.
Number one seed Boris Becker and second seed Goran Ivanisevic both escaped Carretero, and it’s fair to say that he grasped the chance to claim the biggest win of his career.
Carretero had just eight years as a professional player
There is a sense that Vacherot can now be here to stay when it comes to the world’s top 40 players, and who knows whether he can kick on even further.
A perfect case study of how quickly things can go wrong is Carretero, who struggled on the professional tour and spent just eight years on the ATP Tour before calling quits on his career.
The Spaniard only won two matches in Grand Slam events across his career. He defeated Emilio Benfele Alvarez in round one of the French Open in 1997 and also beat Jordi Puig at the US Open in 1996.
Carretero has a singles record of 23 wins and 45 losses and couldn’t build on his Hamburg Open win when, much like Vacherot, he defied the odds to win a sizeable prize.
Receive exclusive tennis news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
