Valentin Vacherot given polite warning as his incredible run continues, ‘you think it was hard going up…’

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Valentin Vacherot has been in the form of his life recently, but there may be cause for concern.

Advancing to the main draw of the Shanghai Masters as a qualifier, Vacherot won the title, defeating 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic along the way.

Carrying that momentum forward to Paris, the Monegasque star reached the quarterfinals, where Vacherot lost to Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Winning 10 Masters 1000 matches in a row, Vacherot caught the attention of the tennis world, and will now jump to 30th in the ATP rankings on Monday, having sat outside the top 200 just a few short weeks ago.

Vacherot has plenty to look forward to, although things are only going to get tougher from here on.

Another player who enjoyed success as a qualifier on the ATP Tour, Vladimir Voltchkov, gave Vacherot a polite warning during an exclusive interview with The Tennis Gazette.

Vladimir Voltchkov tells Valentin Vacherot it’s ‘twice as hard’ staying at the top as it is reaching it

Belarusian tennis legend Voltchkov wrote his name into the history books at Wimbledon 25 years ago, when he reached the semifinals as a qualifier.

Watching Vacherot achieve similar success in 2025, Voltchkov had a few words of wisdom for the breakout star.

“The level of competition is much more severe on the [ATP] Tour than on the Challenger Tour. On the Challenger Tour, even though the players are great, you can get two or three matches in the draw where you just play good enough, and the other guy might just say, ‘Ok, not my day,’ when you’re on the tour, everyone is an intense, severe competitor,” he said.

“The intensity of competition is so hard that you have to be mentally prepared to go in and compete so hard every week throughout your schedule.

“You have to be smart scheduling and understanding yourself well enough so that you maintain your body well and maintain your psychological balance.

“You think it was hard going up, but actually staying up is twice as hard.”

Voltchkov proceeded to tell Vacherot what he needs to focus on if he wants to continue on the same trajectory.

“What you need to concentrate on is maintaining your body in a healthy state, so that you can keep going,” he said.

“Really study your body, how much you can take, what is the balance between competition and rest, or what is the routine to keep this body going in this condition?”

The Belarusian did, however, suggest that he wasn’t too ‘worried’ about Vacherot, given the team he has around him.

“If you have achieved this kind of result, it means that your tennis is dangerous enough to beat a lot of very good players,” said Voltchkov.

“The tennis culture in France is very strong, very high, and I’m not worrying too much; he’ll have enough people around him to guide him through what he’s going to face.”

Only time will tell if Vacherot can continue to perform as well as he did in Shanghai and Paris, where he won 10 straight matches at the Masters 1000 level.

Valentin Vacherot’s Masters 1000 winning streak

Entering Shanghai qualifying as an alternate, Vacherot advanced to the main draw, where he embarked upon one of the most remarkable runs in recent history.

Defeating the likes of Alexander Bublik, Holger Rune, and Djokovic, Vacherot became the first Monegasque player to win a Masters 1000 title.

He then won three more matches in Paris, including a second career win over his cousin, Arthur Rinderknech.

Vacherot’s winning streak came to an end at 10 matches, losing to Auger-Aliassime in the Paris Masters quarterfinals, although that likely won’t be the last we see of the 26-year-old on the big stage.

Now a top-30 player, Vacherot can look forward to making his Australian Open debut in January, an event he may well be seeded for.

The 2026 Australian Open is scheduled to begin on Monday, January 12.