Valentin Vacherot made some more history for his country on Saturday in Basel. The Monegasque took out Taylor Fritz 7-6(5), 6-3 to become the first man from Monaco to reach the final at the Swiss Indoors Basel.
“You just have to pray on the returns, because Taylor is probably one of the two or three best servers on tour,” he said.
Vacherot, who famously won the Shanghai Masters title to become the lowest-ranked player ever to win a Masters 1000 title in 2025, reached his first final of 2026 and will face Jiri Lehecka for the title on Sunday.
Lehecka saved a match point to defeat Jan-Lennard Struff, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4. The Czech defeated Vacherot in the Tokyo semifinals last month, and the pair have split two head-to-head meetings.
Vacherot won 40 of 51 first-serve points and cracked ten aces to level his head-to-head with Fritz at 1-1, avenging a first-round loss to the American in Basel last year.
Vacherot has defeated Mariano Navone, Rafael Jodar, Holger Rune and Fritz to reach the final.
When asked to compare his game from last year to this year, Vacherot explained why he feels he is a better player today.
“I have way more confidence,” Vacherot said. “What happened in Shanghai gave me all the confidene in the world to know that I can compete against all these guys. I’m serving much better, first of all, from Shanghai last year. I’m returning much better [as well].
“I think I’m way smarter than last year from the back as well, I can hit many more shots than before and I think all of that makes me a better player.”
He rallied from 4-1 down to take the first-set tiebreak, then broke for 5-3 before serving out the match, converting his third match point to secure his sixth career Top 20 win (6-6).
Vacherot also won 11 of 11 points from the net in the 86-minute contest.
Fritz’s loss means that Rafael Jodar will enter the Top 10 for the first time when Monday’s rankings are released. Fritz himself is still alive in the Race to Turin standings but he’ll have to produce a massive effort in Paris to make it.
Fritz is in 11th place with 2885 points, while Jodar is currently holding down the final spot with 3209.
0 comments