Miracle after the exploits?

Beating Rune, Griekspoor, Bublik, and Machac are exceptional feats for Vacherot, but now it’s another step to take.

We’re talking about beating Djokovic in the semifinal of a big tournament—that’s a whole different dimension. The Serb is more and more beatable, especially at smaller events or early in the week, but once he gets going only Sinner and Alcaraz can stop him.. The opportunity is huge for the Serb—playing Vacherot to reach a Masters 1000 final is a little gift from the heavens, and I expect him to be even more focused than usual. He already tightened things up nicely against Bergs so as not to waste too much time and energy on court, and he’ll come in with the same mindset here. Physically he’s still intimidating, but he’s affected by the conditions and at his age it’s not as easy to absorb and recover; Vacherot has worn down his opponents all week, and even if he too is starting to show physical limits, I think he’ll still have the engine he needs. The matchup question comes up, and that’s tricky because it depends on Djoko—when he’s on, he doesn’t have bad matchups and could just roll over Vacherot. We’ve seen Valentin struggle a lot more when his serve gets neutralized; Rune did that well and Djoko should do it too. From the baseline he’ll need to come to the net, try things, and believe; on that last part I have no doubt. He has a steely mindset and, given his week, he believes he can beat anyone. The lingering doubt is his start to the match—he was tight against Rune and that should be the case again here, but one good service game is enough to get going and suddenly everything looks better! I honestly want to believe in him once again; Djoko hasn’t particularly impressed me this week and his margin is thinner against a lot more players than before..