How far can Vacherot go?

Did anyone expect to see him in the third round in Shanghai?

Well, here he is. A good qualifying run and then taking advantage of a Djere making his first match in forever and a Bublik that wasn't "locked in". Still, we need to give him credit. And it might not be over just yet, cause I think he has an opponent that is beatable here... Machac. Based on the scoreline and stats, it was quite a comfortable win for Machac in the first round against Bellucci, and to some degree, I agree. His serve was on fire, constantly hitting lines and setting up a lot of +1s nicely. He was able to go down the line with his backhand with a lot of success as well. Bellucci did help him out quite a bit with some bad errors, as he usually does. Something to note was that Machac had some tape on his knee and that he also called in the physio for a chat, but no actual treatment.

I kind of like Vacherot's profile against Machac. Having a big serve and being consistent is the most important against Machac (look to his match against Fritz in the USO), cause Machac is brilliant but he is inconsistent. He returns very aggressively, and sometimes he has huge dips, which can give an opening on his own serve, as long as you can keep yours well. Now, Vacherot is obviously nowhere close to someone like Fritz. However, one of the biggest factors for me here will be the very hot weather forecasted tomorrow... they are also playing somewhat late, so we'll get slower conditions and more humidity. With all this in mind, there is only one way I can look for this match, unless the odds are nowhere close to what I'm expecting...