Roland-Garros champion Coco Gauff also held up a significant trophy over in the Far East in Wuhan, China.
©Jade Gao / AFPSome stories you just couldn’t script.
Two cousins, former college tennis teammates in Texas, USA, produced the story of the season at the ATP Shanghai Masters last week. Valentin Vacherot and Arthur Rinderknech, take a bow.
Over to Wuhan, China, and Coco Gauff continued to defy any doubters, reminding her rivals of her supreme powers with WTA 1000 glory.
Prior to heading to Shanghai, 26-year-old Valentin Vacherot only had one ATP Tour-level match win to his name.
14 days of competition later, nine wins in total, the qualifier left with his maiden ATP title, becoming the first Monegasque player to win a tour-level singles title.
That’s only half of this astonishing story, as Vacherot prevailed past his cousin Arthur Rinderknech 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 to land his career-best milestone.
They have supported each other for years, there were emotional scenes all fortnight in Shanghai when willing each other on. The tears were well and truly flowing on Sunday after Vacherot’s triumph – the heartfelt words, the family nostalgia, Rinderknech even collapsed with cramp during the trophy presentation. Again, you couldn’t write this story.
“I don't even understand why I'm sitting here right now. It's crazy,” said a perplexed Vacherot. “I think I'm going to start realising in the next few days. Right now, I just want to enjoy the moment. I just got really, really emotional on the court after the ceremony, being up there with Arthur.
“It was just some unreal moments for both of us, for our family. Unfortunately, there was one winner. But our family won, and the sport of tennis won as well, because the story we just wrote is amazing.”
There were seeds of success for the Monaco native at Roland-Garros 2024. Last year Vacherot qualified for his first ever Grand Slam main draw, where he lost to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in four sets at the first hurdle.
11 months on and that milestone maiden ATP match win came on home courts at the 2025 Monte-Carlo Masters, with an emphatic 6-2, 6-1 scoreboard over Jan-Lennard Struff.
Six months further on and Vacherot completed an historic and astounding fortnight in Shanghai.
It wasn’t on the cards just over two weeks ago, because Vacherot was the world No.204 and was outside the Shanghai qualifying cutoff. A few withdrawals later, a couple of tight victories and the 26-year-old was eventually in the main draw mix.
High-calibre wins came across the net from Alexander Bublik, Tomas Machac and Tallon Griekspoor. He then outgunned No.10 seed Holger Rune 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-4, thriving in the pressure moments. Valentin was on the march.
How about the semi-finals? Well, 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic was dismissed 6-3, 6-4, prompting the all-time great to graciously post on Instagram, “This is your moment, you played unbelievably and have made Monaco proud.”
Another comeback was required to defy his cousin and the Monegasque talisman became the lowest-ranked champion in Masters 1000 series history (since 1990).
“I won six matches from being down from the first set. So the challenges were just everywhere. I'm just so happy that I just cooperated with all that and to be even sitting here right now is surreal to me,” he stated, rising 164 places in the rankings on Monday to crack the Top 40.
“I’m No.40? Wonderful. I still had the little goal before coming here to be Top 100 before the end of the season. I knew that it was going to take so much, because we know how hard it is to even win one ATP Challenger.
“It's pretty crazy to say, but even this summer I had this (Shanghai) tournament in my mind. I knew it was the biggest tournament before the end of the season that I would have my chance to get into… Little did I know that's what I would be doing here.”
It truly was the greatest everything of Vacherot’s career thus far.
Rinderknech more than played his part in this feel-good storyline that engulfed the tennis world.
The Frenchman found the answers to remove five seeded stars en route to the final and as a result, rises to his own career-high ranking of No.28 on Monday.
Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula go way back. The fellow Americans, fellow Top 10 talents, were runners-up together at Roland-Garros 2022 in the women’s doubles.
Well, on Sunday, they took on each other in a final for the very first time.
World No.3 Gauff had the last say in a compelling WTA 1000 Wuhan final, clinching a second title of the season with a 6-4, 7-5 scoreline.
The reigning Roland-Garros champion is now the first WTA player in history to achieve an unblemished 9-0 in hard court finals and Gauff achieved that tally in Wuhan without dropping a set.
The 21-year-old soared through her opening trio of tests, before meeting Italy’s Jasmine Paolini.
Gauff had lost three times to Paolini in 2025 and on top of that, the world No.8 had just dominated No.2 seed Iga Swiatek 6-1, 6-2 in the quarter-finals.
The American, just like so many instances before, shrugged off outside noise, ignored the form book or head-to-head narrative and secured a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Paolini to head into the silverware showdown versus Pegula.
Over the net, Pegula was in a confident streak of form, having toppled world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(2) in a last four thriller.
In the final, Gauff portrayed plenty of grit to reel in Pegula from 3-0 down and 5-3 down in the second set to break clear for an 11th WTA crown.
“When I came on tour, you were one of the first people to be nice to me and welcome me with open arms,” said Gauff, hailing Pegula during the trophy ceremony. “That really went a long way, so I appreciate you. It’s great to finally play in the final against you, and I hope for many more.”
Gauff and Pegula can now look ahead to a WTA Finals title tilt early next month.
ROLAND-GARROS
18 May - 7 June 2026
