Valentin Vacherot Still Proving He Belongs On The Big Stage

Valentin Vacherot is through to the 3^rd Rd. of a Major for the first time, defeating Australian Rinky Hijikata 6-1 6-3 4-6 6-2. Vacherot was essentially a complete unknown for all but the hardiest of tennis fans, just a few short months ago.

At the end of September, Vacherot was ranked just outside the top 200. Back in 2024, he reached 110, and was within touching distance of the top 100, but it never eventuated.

But then Shanghai happened.

We know the story…Vacherot flew there as alternate in qualifying. Snuck in after some withdrawals opened up a spot. He won both his qualifying matches, then went on an absolute tear, defeating 7 top 100 players, and 3 top 20 players, including Alexander Bublik, Holger Rune, and Novak Djokovic.

His ranking jumped from outside 200, to on the verge of the top 40. He backed it up with a quarter-final run at the Paris Masters, to lock down a seeding for the Australian Open.

Vacherot has only ever played 1 Grand Slam main draw match; when he qualified for the 2024 French Open. He lost to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

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This Vacherot is different. He is proving he belongs in the big league, even if he doesn’t quite see it that way.

“I’m sure so many people thought it was just the one week. Then even though I did well after in Paris as well, it was probably just about my confidence of the moment, so I’m just happy to win as many matches as I can. If some people were wondering if I had the level, maybe they have more answers, but me, I don’t look much at social media and everything.

So I don’t read about that. I don’t know if there’s some story going around. I just play tennis and try to play as good this season and every tournament. We’ll see. We do the counts at the end.”

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Vacherot did agree that the off-season may have come at the wrong time, and that he knew it was important to get off to a good start this year, to build on that momentum.

“It was important. That’s why I played both tournaments also before in Brisbane and Adelaide, to try to get as many matches straightaway, because at the end of the day, the break was two month, so two month without matches, it’s never really happened for me before.

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I played some decent matches. I think what is good is that I played really good guys straightaway. I play Sebastian Korda in Brisbane, Kecmanovic in Adelaide, Alejandro Davidovich. It’s all guys that have been in the top 50 for a while.

I had to put my level up straightaway and had a win, had some losses, but it wasn’t bad matches at all. Now it’s good because I have three matches in my back to come here and try to play as good as possible.”

Vacherot’s next opponent is Ben Shelton. The two are no strangers having come across each other at college.

“I’m really happy to play him, because he played two years college, and we had his first year in common, so he was really young. He was 17 or 18 years old, but he was already pretty impressive with his serve and everything.”

While Vacherot said he’s excited to play Shelton for the first time, Shelton himself said it won’t actually be the first time, as they met years ago in a Challenger.

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Shelton also pointed towards Vacherot as an example that there’s not a lot of difference between players in the top 20, and players outside 100.

“I think it just shows that, you know, the game of tennis is very mental, and the level difference between guys who are playing challengers to the top of the world, it’s not massive.

I played him in one of the early challengers I played, and we had an absolute war. I think I beat him 5 or 6 in the third. Even since he was in college, he’s always been a problem.

I’m not shocked to see him in the top 100 and having great results on the tour. I think that he has a lot of weapons. I think he’s great physically. I think he’s a tough competitor. Yeah, I think it’s a great third-round matchup.

I’m really looking forward to it.”

So are we.

Author

Todd Scoullar

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