ATP Tour

Draper, Fonseca among nominees for ATP Breakthrough of the Year

From unexpected ATP Masters 1000 champions to historic runs across the globe, the 2025 ATP Tour season featured several electrifying moments when rising talents seized their opportunity at the sport’s biggest tournaments.

For the first time, the 29 members of the exclusive ATP No. 1 Club will decide the winner of Breakthrough of the Year in the ATP Awards. ATPTour.com takes a look at the four nominees.

Jack Draper
The 23-year-old lefty played with newfound confidence and firepower to cement his place at the top of the game. In the first six months of the year, Draper went from No. 18 in the PIF ATP Rankings to a career-high No. 4, highlighted by his biggest career title at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells. The Briton, who enjoyed career-best runs at the Australian Open and Roland Garros by reaching the fourth round at both, also reached finals in Doha and Madrid, respectively.

Joao Fonseca
The Brazilian emerged as one of the most exciting young talents on Tour in 2025, backing up his triumph at the 2024 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF. At the ATP 250 in Buenos Aires in February, the then-18-year-old Fonseca became the youngest South American champion in the ATP Tour era (since 1990). Fonseca made more history in Basel in October, when he became the third-youngest ATP 500 champion in series history. Having started the season outside the Top 100, Fonseca finished the year at a career-high No. 24.

Jakub Mensik
Mensik lived out a childhood dream at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Miami. The Czech went on a surprise run and shocked Top 5 stars Taylor Fritz and Novak Djokovic in his final two matches of the tournament. "It was probably the biggest day of my life,” said Mensik after defeating his longtime idol Djokovic in the title match. Having started the year as the World No. 48, the rose as high as No. 16 in August.

Valentin Vacherot
The Monegasque lived the fairytale of all fairytales in Shanghai, where he was in the main draw as a No. 204-ranked qualifier with only one previous ATP Tour win, and then went on to make history as the lowest-ranked ATP Masters 1000 champion in history (since 1990). Vacherot, who beat his cousin Arthur Rinderknech in the final, earned 1,020 PIF ATP Ranking points in that tournament alone and skyrocketed to World No. 40. The 27-year-old built upon his momentum with a quarter-final run at the Rolex Paris Masters to reach a career-high World No. 30.