Read & Watch: Vacherot Creates History With Epic Win

Valentin Vacherot has added another chapter to his emotional run at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, coming from a set down to defeat Hubert Hurkacz to the deafening cheers of home fans under lights on Court Rainier III Thursday night. The win guarantees that he will break into the Top 20 on Monday.

Becoming the first Monegasque to reach the quarter-finals of his hometown event, the World No. 23 won a leg-burning contest 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-4 in two hours, 53 minutes between two of the game’s heavyweights.

“Physicality is one of my weapons,” Vacherot said on court after the match. “I love long matches. The longer it goes, the more confidence I have that I can win.”

It was an exhausting battle where the players took turns pushing each other deep and wide behind the baseline during extended rallies that were a signature of the first-time meeting.

But Vacherot was always ready to move forward when the opportunity arose. He threw in a surprise second-serve serve-and-volley to fend off a break point and moved to net to claim the decisive break in the third set to go ahead 4-3. In the final game, a bold forehand volley saved two of three break points Vacherot faced in serving out the match — and a confident backhand volley brought up match point.

Vacherot faces another physical test Friday night when he faces last year’s semi-finalist Alex de Minaur, who won a tense 7-5, 7-6(4) battle over 2025 Next Gen ATP Finals runner-up Alexander Blockx.

Ranked No. 256 this time last year, Vacherot is up to No. 19 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings. The 27-year-old raced out to a 4-0 lead only to have Hurkacz fight back to take the set. But he didn’t let that setback impact his attitude.

“I got to 4-0 pretty quicky, Hubi was missing a lot and I was playing my clay game pretty well. But then he found a way to win a lot of the [long] rallies we were having,” Vacherot said.

“But I got a bit of confidence back in the tie-break to take into the second set even though I was a little low on energy. But the crowd helped me get the energy back. It’s cold and humid and the balls were heavy, so it was really hard to hit a winner. I was really happy how I handled the conditions in the third set and how I came in a lot.”