Who is Valentin Vacherot’s half-brother and coach Benjamin Balleret?
Valentin Vacherot has enjoyed a fairytale run at the 2025 Shanghai Masters and one of the key figures to his success story so far has been his half-brother and coach Benjamin Balleret.
The name Vacherot is on everyone’s lips after his historic run at as he has become the first Monegasque player to reach the quarter-final of an ATP Masters 1000 before going one step further to become the first man from Monaco to reach a semi-final when he beat 10th seed Holger Rune.
And he has exceeded his wildest dreams as he has now reached the final after beating all-time great Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-4.
Before the Shanghai Masters, Vacherot had very limited success as his had appeared only once in a Grand Slam and that was at the 2024 French Open when he lost in the first round, while he had peaked at No 110 in the ATP Rankings.
After a difficult year, the 26-year-old started the Shanghai tournament at No 204 in the rankings, and for his coach Balleret there was perhaps a sense of déjà vu as his highest ranking was 204.
Who Is Benjamin Balleret?
Balleret perhaps crawled so that Vacherot could walk and later run as he was the first player from Monaco to reach the third round of an ATP 1000 event back in 2006 as he achieved the feat at the Monte Carlo Masters.
Born on January 15, 1983, Balleret hails from a tennis-playing family as his father Bernard Balleret, stepmother Alexia Dechaume-Balleret and aunt Virginie Paquet all play tennis.
And there is another tennis connection as half-brothers Balleret and Vacherot are cousins of Arthur Rinderknech (Paquet’s son).
A Look At Balleret’s Career
Balleret turned professional in 2001 and he is still an active player, although these days he only plays Davis Cup for Monaco, with his last match a straight-set defeat to Nuno Borges from Portugal during a round-robin match earlier in 2025.
Heck, he doesn’t even have ranking as his last match outside of the Davis Cup was in June 2016 when he competed at an ITF event in France.
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According to the ATP, Balleret had a win-loss record of 27-30 and he earned $363,382 in career-prize money. Compare that to the $597,890 that Vacherot is guaranteed to earn for reaching the final of the Shanghai Masters.
He was also known for playing the longest tie-break in tennis in 2013 as he and Guillaume Couillard battled for 70 points before the Monaco player edged it 36–34.
From Player To Coach
Balleret started coaching his brother in 2022 and after a difficult couple of seasons, they are now enjoying success with Vacherot set to shoot up to a career-high No 58 in the ATP Rankings after the Shanghai Masters.
The 42-year-old admits that they had to start from the bottom and work their way back up.
“There was the injury last year and we were so close from the Top 100,” he told ATP Tour. “You have to start all over again and so it was very difficult for him to accept. It’s a bit emotional because he’s my brother and I see him grow and I know that he wants it so much.
“Sometimes I feel he wants it too much. Also because we started from zero. He came back from college and had zero points. I believe in him, he believed in me. He believed in my experience to help him. So for all that it’s emotional.”
After his brother’s win over Djokovic, Balleret was overwhelmed as Vacherot came through qualifying to reach the final.
“We didn’t expect at all to play eight matches here,” he said. “It’s not even unexpected, it’s not possible. I mean, you say it’s impossible. You just laugh about it if you say, Okay, you go form the quallies all the way to the final. Of course, no. So it’s a fairytale, that’s it.”
And the family WhatsApp group is going into overdrive with the two cousins in the final as Rinderknech defeated Daniil Medvedev to set up a dream showpiece match.
“I don’t have time to talk about all the family. But right now all the group chats are like crazy. Everybody can believe,” Balleret revealed.
“Every day they say, Okay, let’s take a plane, like 20 tickets, and let’s go. I don’t know what happens if Arthur won. Arthur is pretty superstitious. Maybe if he’s even in the final nobody will come and we’ll stay like this. We’ll celebrate, we’ll celebrate anyway with the family when we go back home, so that’s it.”
