Valentin Vacherot’s Shanghai Open title defence came to a comprehensive end at the hands of Tommy Paul in the third round.
Vacherot‘s Masters 1000 heroics a year ago was one of the best stories in tennis as the qualifier, who was ranked 204th in the world, conquered all before him to make history.
The Monegasque player defeated his cousin, Arthur Rinderknech, in the final but there was no fairytale repeat in 2026 as he lost 6-4, 6-2 to Paul on Monday.
The 27-year-old did not beat around the bush in his post-match press conference, describing the defeat as arguably his worst loss of the year. Although he admitted he didn’t feel great physically and mentally, Vacherot also praised the American’s performance.
He told reporters, “First of all, I just played really bad, but also Tommy made me play bad. He just ran me around pretty well. I wasn’t feeling great. I saw pretty quickly that I wasn’t feeling great physically also.
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“All that together, I tried to fight in the first set. I came back, I was returning well. That was one of the few things that I was doing great today was returning. I had the break point to get back at 5-5 in the first set, and I think once I didn’t get that one he also got confident and he played a really, really good second set.”
When asked if there were any other indications that a flat performance was in store for him, Vacherot replied, “No, it was physically, mentally, it was a bit of everything.
“I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been on the road for so long or anything, but no, tonight was probably one of my worst match[es] of the season. Unfortunately, it’s here in Shanghai, but it’s okay.”
Vacherot has proven over the past year that he is a top 50 player, with the right-hander currently 37th in the ATP Tour Race on 1,280 points. Since his Shanghai breakthrough, he reached the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters and the semi-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters.
Vacherot played at three of the four Grand Slams this year and reached a career-high of 14 earlier this month, following a semi-final run in Tokyo. Now, though, he has dropped 970 points and fallen 18 spots to 32nd in the rankings.
When asked if he was still going to have good memories of this tournament, Vacherot replied, “Yeah, yeah, that’s also why I’m really disappointed. I would rather leave this tournament with a big match, a good fight, I don’t know, three sets or something, not just losing 6-4, 6-2.
“But it’s tennis, you cannot control everything. Especially you cannot control when your opponent is playing really good, like tonight. So, yeah, it’s okay. I mean, of course next year I will be as pleased coming back as I was this year.”
While he is the biggest loser in terms of rankings so far in Shanghai, there have been some other big winners. Carlos Alcaraz’s shock loss to Zizou Bergs means Alexander Zverev has been confirmed as the year-end No 1.
His next opponent, Alexander Bublik, is up four spots in the live rankings to 18th, and the in-form Hubert Hurkacz has risen from 34th to 30th ahead of his last-16 encounter with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Arthur Gea is up to a career-high of 48th after reaching the round of 16, while last year’s finalist Rinderknech has fallen 30 spots to 63rd as he couldn’t compete at the 2026 edition.
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