Novak Djokovic battled past Valentin Vacherot of Monaco 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-1 in the Round of 64 at the Rolex Paris Masters on Tuesday, an important result for the Serbian star’s chances of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals.
Djokovic, seeded 10th in Paris, is No. 11 in the live Race to Turin standings and must finish in the top nine in the points race to reach the prestigious championship at season’s end. The top eight available players qualify, but Jannik Sinner (No. 2 overall) won’t enter due to a season-ending knee injury.
Against Vacherot, Djokovic saved 6 of 7 break points and had to fend off his opponent’s 22 aces. Vacherot finished with a 45-27 advantage in total winners but also committed nearly twice as many unforced errors (51 to 26) as the 24-time Grand Slam champion.
“He has a tremendous serve,” Djokovic said of Vacherot, who was fresh off winning the Swiss Indoors Basel title. “It is huge, both first and second. For a set and a half, I had difficulty reading his serve and even if I guessed right, it was coming with some speed. It is hard to play someone like that, doesn’t give you many opportunities and puts additional pressure on your service games.
“The third set was really good but very tiring physically, a lot of long rallies … I am still there, still hanging on and still giving it whatever I can, trying to find my best level when it matters.”
Djokovic got some major help in the Race to Turin when Norway’s Casper Ruud ended Spanish No. 9 seed Rafael Jodar’s tournament in the Round of 32, defeating him 6-3, 6-4. Jodar sits ninth in the Race to Turin leaderboard, with Australia’s Alex de Minaur in 10th.
Ruud rallied from a 3-1 deficit in the second set, ripping off five of the final six games.
“On the indoor court you have to be as aggressive as possible,” said Ruud, known as a clay-court specialist. “There will be some mistakes. (But) I have accepted that in my game plan for indoor hard courts … It has been a tough balance for me to try to accept that more errors will come out of the racquet, but in order to keep up with the level of these guys, you just have to go for it at times.”
The highest seed in action was No. 3 Ben Shelton, who swept Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie 6-3, 6-4 in 71 minutes in Tuesday’s only other Round of 32 contest.
Shelton’s fellow Americans, No. 11 Taylor Fritz and No. 12 Tommy Paul, advanced out of the Round of 64. Fritz dropped his first set against French qualifier Benjamin Bonzi but rallied to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Paul bested Denmark’s Holger Rune 7-5, 6-4.
Italian Matteo Berrettini saved two match points during a third-set tiebreaker on his way to upsetting No. 14 seed Brandon Nakashima 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (8).
Also advancing were No. 15 seed Learner Tien, Alex Michelsen, Portuguese lucky loser Nuno Borges, Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry, France’s Quentin Halys and Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff. Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech was ahead 3-6, 7-6 (2), 2-0 when Argentine 16th seed Francisco Cerundolo retired.
–Field Level Media
