Valentin Vacherot would have been relatively unheard of before the Shanghai Masters, but now he’s got a semifinal date with Novak Djokovic to look forward to.
Vacherot is one of the lowest-ranked players to make the semis of a Masters 1000 event, and the joy was etched all over his face after his win over Holger Rune.
Vacherot was shocked by something in the match against Rune, and after Djokovic beat Zizou Bergs, the pair will meet for a place in the final.
Djokovic admitted he made some mistakes against Bergs, and given that he’s seemingly struggled with some injury issues through the tournament, it will be interesting to see how he holds up for Saturday’s semifinal.
In truth, Bergs admitted he showed Djokovic too much respect in their match, and that straight away provides Vacherot with a tip ahead of his next match.
Valentin Vacherot shares how he feels about playing Novak Djokovic
Forget everything else he’s achieved coming through qualifying, this will be a real acid test for Vacherot.
Djokovic has provided a fitness update ahead of his next match in Shanghai, and there might be some hope for the rank outsider.
Vacherot was quizzed in his press conference about coming up against Djokovic, and it would appear that he cannot wait.
He said: “Yeah, I started my career, and this is only my fourth season on the professional tour. I started my first full season when it was in 2022. So I missed Roger. Roger stopped in 2022.
“I think I played maybe one tournament the same as Rafa. So I had no chance to play Rafa in my career.
“And if I, who knows whenever Novak is going to retire, we know it’s rather sooner than later. So if I can play Saturday, Novak, it will be, it would just be, it would mean a lot to play at least one of the guys of the big three in my career.
“But we will see. Zizou is a really good player, so maybe it will be him, I don’t know. I don’t know the score, we’ll see later. But, yeah, it will be, of course, a different feeling to play Novak.”
Vacherot beating Djokovic would be one of the biggest shocks of all time
Naturally, best two out of three set matches do offer more chances for a shock to take place.
That said, it would still be quite a story if Vacherot could go all the way and defeat Djokovic to book his place in Sunday’s final.
Djokovic has been on the wrong end of some shocks in Grand Slams previously, most notably to Denis Istomin at the Australian Open in 2017.
Vacherot really doesn’t have anything to lose against Djokovic, and if he can showcase the form that has got him this far, he could claim a huge win.
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