It was necessary to commission one of the best indoor tough specialists, recently returned to the Top 10, to stop Valentin Vacherot’s enchanted journey. The stunning winner of the Shanghai Masters 1000 had to admit defeat in the quarter-finals of the Rolex Paris Masters against Félix Auger-Aliassime (6-2, 6-2) this Friday.
In Nanterre, the Monegasque had tamed two Top 30 – Jiri Lehecka (18th) and his Arthur Rinderknech (29th) – as well as Carlos Alcaraz’s slayer, Cameron Norrie. The neo-40th player in the world, soon among the 30 best in the ATP, had extinguished his opponents with his physical resistance and his reliability on the backhand, but “FAA” had revised his Vacherot well.
A first game of 12 minutes
Also a resident of Monaco, the Canadian is riding above all on a form that he has not known for three years and his superb fall 2022. Since then, the Montrealer has experienced long setbacks. Including this interminable twelve-minute game to start the game, at the end of which he broke Vacherot.
The latter was caught up by the efforts made over the past month and his epic nine meetings in China. The Vacherot madness was stifled by Auger-Aliassime at Paris La Défense Arena, but it would be hasty to say that the player from the Rock will not represent himself at these heights again.
