Valentin Vacherot came through a gruelling three-set battle against Stefanos Tsitsipas on Friday, October 2, winning 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals of the ATP 500 tournament in Tokyo.
The Monégasque, seeded eighth and ranked 18th in the world, had to fight back after dropping the opening set to Tsitsipas, the former world No. 3 competing through qualifying. Vacherot edged a tense second-set tiebreak before pulling clear in the decider, closing out the match in two hours and twelve minutes.
It continues a strong run on hard courts for Vacherot, who beat Alexander Blockx in two tiebreak sets in the first round and has now won four of his last six matches on the surface. His win over Tsitsipas adds to a résumé that already includes hard-court victories over Matteo Berrettini, Mariano Navone and Jiří Lehečka, as well as this year’s Masters 1000 title in Shanghai.
Tsitsipas arrived in Tokyo on a four-match winning streak, including wins over higher-ranked players Arthur Fils and Alex de Minaur, which made the result a notable scalp for Vacherot given the gap between the pair in the rankings.
Vacherot will next face the winner of the match between Arthur Fils and Frances Tiafoe, with a place in the semi-finals at stake.