Valentin Vacherot is already guaranteed to double his career earnings after reaching the Shanghai Masters final. The world No. 204 is on the run of his life, coming through qualifying to become the lowest-ranked man ever to reach a Masters 1000 final and shocking Novak Djokovic to win 6-3 6-4 on Saturday.
He’s now set for his biggest-ever payday, and could go a step further if he pulls off one of the biggest surprises in tennis by lifting the trophy on Sunday, as the champion takes home a staggering £842k ($1.1m).
Meanwhile, the runner-up stands to pocket £448k ($598k). It means that, no matter what happens in Sunday’s final, Vacherot has already doubled his total career earnings of £445k ($594k).
The total prize money pot in Shanghai this year stood at a whopping £6.9m ($9.2m), and even those who lost in the first round still banked £18k ($24k).
The promise of some extra cash has certainly helped Vacherot, who flew his fitness trainer into Shanghai after winning his quarter-final match against Holger Rune on Thursday.
“The first thing [I did] when I won the quarter-final is that I texted my fitness coach and I said, Do you want to come, with a laughing face. And I think five minutes later the flight was booked. He arrived last night and he was here in the box,” the qualifier recalled.
Arguably, something even more important for Vacherot is the ranking points on offer in Shanghai. The Monaco native just missed out on breaking the top 100 last year when an injury derailed his season.
He’s not just reached the top 100 with his run this week – he’s set to reach at least No. 58 in the world. Vacherot added: “Maybe I visualised that I could do good here. Of course, I didn’t think that I could do that good. I wasn’t thinking of doing that good.
“Already winning a couple matches was already good, as I said. So I was still thinking of top 100 before the end of the season. I thought it could be possible. As we know, winning one Challenger, sometimes it happens, player gains confidence, and starts to win, two, three in a row.
“But I would have been happy finishing just 99 or 100. Thinking now that I’m going to be at least 58, yeah, I need to realise a little bit. But it’s good. Now I’m just going to get to play all the biggest tournaments in the world, so really happy for that, yeah.”
Shanghai Masters prize money in full
Champion: £841,996 ($1,124,380)
Runner-up: £447,732 ($597,890)
Semi-final: £248,739 ($332,160)
Quarter-final: £141,589 ($189,075)
Round of 16: £77,300 ($103,225)
Third round: £45,231 ($60,400)
Second round: £26,405 ($35,260)
First round: £17,793 ($23,760)
