Ironman Vacherot Sets SF Showdown With Alcaraz

The fairytale continues!

Monaco’s Valentin Vacherot won a lung-busting three-set marathon for the second consecutive evening Friday to book a semi-final showdown on his home court with World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz at the Monte-Carlo Country Club.

With his rare blend of baseline firepower and hard-to-penetrate defence, the World No. 23 won a physical 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 contest with World No. 6 Alex de Minaur, regarded as one of the fiercest competitors on tour.

“It’s such an honour to be part of the semi-finals with three of the best players of the last few years,” Vacherot said of the semi-final line-up that also includes Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev. “I can’t wait for tomorrow to have the opportunity to play Carlos in my home town.”

Following his near-three-hour victory in heavy conditions against Hubert Hurkacz the night before, Vacherot showed strong legs and a stronger heart in clutch moments to fend off the Australian.

He closed out the first set by winning a grinding 23-shot rally. Later, serving at 4-3 in the third set, he rallied from 0/40 to hold, ultimately fending off four break points in the pivotal game.

“It’s amazing. All the guys up there [watching] are my best friends since I was nine, 10, 11, 12 years old” Vacherot said. “I went to high school, middle school with them. It’s rare to have this many people around, all the members of the club here in the boxes. I can probably name 1000 faces in the crowd. It’s just so lucky to have a tournament in my club.”

Vacherot, who upset World No. 5 and 2025 finalist Lorenzo Musetti in the third round, improved to a 4-4 record against Top 10 players with his win over De Minaur.

This time last year he entered the tournament as a wild card ranked No. 256. He turned around his career last October when he won through qualifying to win the Rolex Shanghai Masters. He is now up to No. 17 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings and would go as high as No. 12 if he wins the title.