Warming up for Shanghai

A lot is at stake for Vacherot during this Asian Swing...

It hasn't been easy for Vacherot lately, and a pivotal part of the season is now close: defending 1000 points at Shanghai. I thought he played a pretty good match against Blockx; overall, he was very solid in pretty much every aspect. He was up a break in each set and failed to convert some set points, but in the end, he played both tiebreaks well. I will mention that Blockx seemed a bit impatient at times; it felt like he was being extra aggressive, perhaps due to not feeling 100% physically with the back injury. Normally, he plays with a bit more patience, so it was more hit-or-miss, with some huge forehands this time. What scares me a bit about Vacherot is the fact that his physicality does not seem to be where it was last year... that's kind of what won him Shanghai; he was a physical beast then.

Tsitsipas got broken in a sloppy opening game and lost the first set due to that (Etcheverry was serve-botting). However, from that point on, he was clearly the better player, dictating rallies and not really being threatened on his serve. His ability to come back in matches has been really good lately, with a lot of dropped first sets, where he has later on taken over the match without panicking. It does feel like he is playing quite "free"; I also see him really going for it, even trying to hit quite a few backhand return winners. He has no real pressure to perform, and it has been a good thing for him. I will say, his return was still probably the weakest part, which could be a problem if Vacherot is really strong on serve.

We have two excellent servers, with Tsitsipas looking to be more aggressive and dictating with his forehand, whereas Vacherot is a bit more solid. Both players can play well at the net as well. Vacherot has not reached the level of last season, but it feels like he is stepping in the right direction...