Carlos Alcaraz is the world No. 1 and the reigning champion of the Monte Carlo Masters. But the Spanish superstar is set to face his toughest test yet in Monaco, as he faces one of their own in Valentin Vacherot. Just a year ago, Vacherot was ranked outside of the world’s top 250 and needed a wildcard to play his home tournament.

But last Autumn, he was the subject of one of the greatest fairytales in recent tennis history when he won the Shanghai Masters as a qualifier ranked No. 204 in the world. Vacherot was still several places outside of the qualifying draw when he landed in China, but he got in and then stormed to the title, beating Novak Djokovic on the way. Better yet, he faced his own cousin, Arthur Rinderknech, in the final.

Now, Vacherot is back at his home tournament as a serious title contender. Ranked at a career-high of No. 23 – and already guaranteed to break the top 20 next week – he’s made it all the way to the semi-finals, beating top-five seeds Lorenzo Musetti and Alex de Minaur en route. Now, he will face world No. 1 Alcaraz for the very first time.

Alcaraz is on an eight-match winning streak at the Monte Carlo Masters and looked unstoppable in the quarter-finals, winning the last 10 games in a row to beat Alexander Bublik 6-3 6-0. But Vacherot knows he has one key advantage that could help him pull off a huge upset and get the win.

After getting his fourth career top-10 win over Alex de Minaur on Friday night, the Monegasque ace said: “I’m going to speak with my team to try to know how I can beat him. My main asset is that I’m playing at home.

“During these matches, I was able to play my real game. It would be great if I could do that all the time, of course, but in the end of those matches, I was able to be more aggressive, to hit harder, to go up to the net. Tomorrow I will need to do that from the very start of the match. Otherwise, I will get beaten. I’m very impatient, looking forward to it, and I will have no choice, so I’m going to go for it.”

Vacherot was relishing the chance to test himself against Alcaraz, so much so that it helped him get over the line to beat De Minaur 6-4 3-6 6-3 in two hours and 24 minutes on a humid evening in Monaco.

“It was my fourth match, and playing De Minaur in very heavy conditions this evening, I knew it would need a lot more energy. He runs so well. He makes so few mistakes. But what helped me was the crowd, of course, and the eagerness to do well, the eagerness to play Alcaraz tomorrow,” Vacherot explained.

“I was able to start off the match well. Winning that first set was key, because if I hadn’t won it, I think it would have been a lot more difficult. In the second set, when he started being ahead, I didn’t let go, of course, but I really followed the groove and I didn’t put into it 100 per cent of my energy, to keep it for the last set.

“In the beginning of the third set, it took me two games to get into it, and at Love-1, I saved a tough game, and with the crowd, here I was ahead again, and I broke him when I was needing it.”

It’s a final-four lineup that Monte-Carlo Masters organisers could have only dreamed of at the beginning of the week – the top three seeds, and a hometown hero. While Alcaraz and Vacherot will do battle in the top half of the draw, world Nos. 2 and 3 Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev meet in the other semi-final. “When I look at the other three, I’m so proud and I’m so honoured to be among them,” Vacherot added.

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