Valentin Vacherot produced the tennis shock of the decade by winning the Shanghai Masters earlier this month.
Vacherot – who was the ATP number 204 – became the lowest-ranked player to win a Masters 1000 title and just the third qualifier in tennis history to accomplish the feat.
After spending some time back in his home country of Monaco, Vacherot is back competing on the ATP Tour, this time at the Swiss Indoors Open.
The wildcard entry has been handed an extremely tough first-round match in Basel, as he faces top seed and world number four Taylor Fritz.
Ahead of his clash against the American, the Monegasque star reflected on his almighty triumph in China.
Vacherot has been told it will be ‘harder’ after winning the Shanghai Masters
During an interview with Tennis TV, the 26-year-old began by reflecting on his current emotions.
When asked how long it took him to ‘come down’ after his victory in Shanghai, Vacherot said: “Oh, still I haven’t come down! I still haven’t.
“Well, it probably helps a lot being here, coming back to a tournament really quickly, to just come down and being back in the mood of full tennis. Of course, the week was a bit crazy in Monaco, and even the few days after, I wasn’t realising at all.
“But yeah, a few percentage more every day, starting to realise a bit more.”
Vacherot added: “A lot of people told me it’s going to be harder now and I said no maybe it’s harder to do it for the first time.
“That now it’s in me and I just want to do it again and keep doing it and keep surfing on my confidence so that’s why I’m really happy to be here also to play as quick as possible, to try to keep playing on much confidence and to also get back to, let’s say, reality of a tennis tournament.”
Who will Vacherot face if he beats Fritz?
After Vacherot’s triumph in Shanghai, anything is possible for the Monegasque star. After all, he defeated Alexander Bublik, Holger Rune and Novak Djokovic in China.
If he defeats Taylor Fritz in the Swiss Indoors first round, Vacherot will play Frenchman Ugo Humbert.
Humbert, who recently made the Stockholm Open final, defeated American Sebastian Korda 6-3, 6-4 in the first round.
The winner of that potential match will face either lucky loser Botic van de Zandschulp or qualifier Reilly Opelka in the third round.
