Caroline Wozniacki believes there is a clear winner in the debate over Emma Raducanu’s US Open fairytale and Valentin Vacherot’s Shanghai Masters title.
On the back of Vacherot’s astonishing title run at this year’s ATP Masters 1000 event in Shanghai, John Isner argued that the Monegasque’s journey was more impressive than that of Raducanu at Flushing Meadows in 2021.
Ranked No 204 at the start of the Shanghai tournament, Vacherot didn’t even make the cut for the qualifying tournament and only managed to get into the draw as a last-minute alternate.
He then beat 10th seed Nishesh Basavareddy and 14th seed Liam Draxl in the qualy tournament to reach the main draw of the Masters event. It was the first time outside of his home event, the Monte Carlo Masters, that he had featured in the main event of a 1000 tournament.
Vacherot then defeated Laslo Djere, 14th seed Alexander Bublik, 20th seed Tomas Machac, who retired, and 27th seed Tallon Griekspoor to reach the quarter-final of not only his first Masters event, but his first ATP tournament.
He continued to slay the big-name players as 10th seed Holger Rune was beaten in the last eight before he stunned 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic in the semi-final to secure an unlikely place in the final against his cousin Arthur Rinderknech.
Vacherot was the last man standing as he won 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 and he secured a couple of milestones in the process as he was the first player from Monaco to win an ATP Tour singles title, the first unseeded Shanghai champion and the lowest-ranked ATP Masters 1000 champion.
Emma Raducanu’s 2021 Run
Four years before Vacherot’s heroics, Raducanu pulled off her own mindblowing feat at the US Open as she came through qualifying to win the season-ending Grand Slam.
The then 18-year-old had made her way up to No 150 in the WTA Rankings ahead of 2021 event in New York and was ranked No 31 in the qualifying tournament.
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Raducanu beat Bibiane Schoofs, Mariam Bolkvadze and fourth seed Mayar Sherif without dropping a set to reach the main draw and found herself in Section 1 in the top half.
The teenager secured wins over Stefanie Voegele, Zhang Shuai, Sara Sorribes Tormo and Shelby Rogers – who had upset top seed Ashleigh Barty – to reach the quarter-finals. The Brit then beat 11th seed Belinda Bencic and 17th seed Maria Sakkari to reach her maiden top-level final.
She was up against fellow unseeded player Leylah Fernandez and came away with a 6-4, 6-3 win to become the first qualifier – man or woman – to win a Grand Slam. And she did so without dropping a set during her 10 matches in New York.
Raducanu v Vacherot
On the Nothing Major podcast, Isner previously stated he felt Vacherot’s run was more impressive because of the fact that he was only an alternate in qualifying at the start of the Shanghai event.
When asked by former world No 1 Wozniacki if he really thinks Vacherot’s result was better than Raducanu winning the US Open, he doubled down and stated: “I stand by that. I think it is. What this guy did, being 26-years-old, one match won the ATP Tour in his whole life, coming from qualies and winning a 1000…?”
The Dane then hit back saying: “That is an incredible result, but Emma went from qualies, we’d never really heard of her before.”
When it was pointed out that Raducanu reached the fourth round at Wimbledon that year, she replied: “But nobody really knew her, she was playing qualies, she didn’t lose a set, but she still won the US Open.
“No matter how you slice and dice it, that’s better than winning a 1000…” she argued.
Caroline Wozniacki confronts John Isner over him stating Vacherot’s Shanghai win was more impressive than Raducanu’s USO win. pic.twitter.com/TUQvVbphzF
— (@RamoFootball) November 18, 2025
Wozniacki, though, did admit she didn’t read the article, just looked at the headline with Isner saying he didn’t exactly say it was a better result.
“It’s a bigger story because it’s the US Open, I think this is more improbable than what she did,” the American stated.
The 2018 Australian Open champion added: “I think we can agree on you would choose the US Open over Shanghai, winning it, so we all agree on that. We all agree that Vacherot’s draw was much more improbable for him to go through that, because of the past results, him being an alternate, so we can agree on that.
“But when you just talk about the result, the end result, I think winning the US Open is better than winning a 1000 [in] Shanghai.”
The post Emma Raducanu’s US Open title more iconic than Valentin Vacherot Shanghai title, says former world No 1 appeared first on Tennis365.
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