{"id":240620,"date":"2025-10-25T20:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T20:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/240620\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T20:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T20:58:09","slug":"valentin-vacherot-shares-what-players-are-starting-to-think-about-novak-djokovic-in-the-atp-locker-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/240620\/","title":{"rendered":"Valentin Vacherot shares what players are starting to think about Novak Djokovic in the ATP locker room"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Follow us on Google Discover <\/a> <\/p>\n

Valentin Vacherot made his ATP Tour breakthrough at the Shanghai Masters.<\/p>\n

Ranked 204th in the world, Vacherot<\/a> travelled to Shanghai as a qualifying alternate, unsure whether he would be given the chance to compete.<\/p>\n

Receiving a qualifying spot at the last minute, Vacherot won his two matches to advance to the main draw.<\/p>\n

There, he beat Laslo Djere, Alexander Bublik, Tomas Machac, Tallon Griekspoor, and Holger Rune<\/a> to set up a semifinal tie with 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n

\"ValentinPhoto by HECTOR RETAMAL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Dealing with the pressure, Vacherot defeated Djokovic<\/a> 6-3, 6-4, picking up the biggest win of his professional career.<\/p>\n

Two weeks on, Vacherot has looked back on that match and suggested what Djokovic\u2019s ATP<\/a> rivals are starting to think about him.<\/p>\n

Valentin Vacherot says the ATP locker room now believes they can beat Novak Djokovic<\/p>\n

Appearing as a guest on \u2018The Changeover Podcast\u2019, Vacherot was asked whether he believes Djokovic\u2019s<\/a> locker room aura is fading.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I\u2019m pretty sure guys believe more now that they can beat him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in my opinion, it\u2019s more about the fitness part than the tennis, the mental.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had insane points, two points from the end, I\u2019m hitting crazy overhead backhand drop shots that I\u2019ve never hit in my life, he\u2019s running, stretching to it, putting it back in the corner. The stadium erupts. I\u2019ve never seen it in my life.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo even fitness, you believe that because he\u2019s 38 years old, you\u2019re going to be better than him physically, but then you run side to side, yes, sometimes he has physical problems, but he still runs side to side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vacherot highlighted Djokovic\u2019s fitness as an area of weakness before he even stepped out on court for their semifinal clash.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably the match that I was thinking about the least before. Even during the 20 minutes before, when I was warming up, I was thinking that there\u2019s a part of me that\u2019s better than this guy, my fitness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the other guys, I couldn\u2019t say that, but we know that Novak [Djokovic] is close to 40 years old, if this match lasts, it\u2019s probably good for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw in the match before that he had a few problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Djokovic may not have been 100%, but that didn\u2019t stop him from making a fast start against the Monegasque.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy comes out so hot in the first game, playing every shot this far from the baseline, I\u2019m playing well, he\u2019s just slapping his forehand down the line, I\u2019m coming in on every serve, and I get broken straight away,\u201d said Vacherot.<\/p>\n

Keeping his composure, Vacherot took control of the match as Djokovic began to struggle physically.<\/p>\n

\"NovakPhoto by Lintao Zhang\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cFifth or sixth game, he started to limp a little bit, but in my head I\u2019m like, it\u2019s Novak, he\u2019s done that 60 times, I\u2019ve seen it on TV 50 times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to focus on myself, don\u2019t look at him.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake him run, don\u2019t be nice. That\u2019s the only match where I thought there was something I could rely on, with my fitness. I just focused on making him move, and finished when I could finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut even with him at lower fitness, he\u2019s still better than 95% of guys, it\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Djokovic may still be better than the majority of his ATP Tour rivals, but as Vacherot mentioned, the aura of invincibility has vanished.<\/p>\n

The Serbian legend has lost several matches against lower-ranked players this year, with each defeat providing more confidence to his future opponents.<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic\u2019s 2025 defeats<\/p>\n

Playing a shortened schedule this year, Djokovic has only competed in 12 tournaments.<\/p>\n

Failing to win the title in all but one of those tournaments (Geneva Open), Djokovic has racked up 11 defeats in 2025.<\/p>\n

MatchOpponentOpponent\u2019s rankScore2025 Shanghai Masters \u2013 SFValentin Vacherot2046-3, 6-42025 US Open \u2013 SFCarlos Alcaraz26-4, 7-6, 6-22025 Wimbledon \u2013 SFJannik Sinner16-3, 6-3, 6-42025 French Open \u2013 SFJannik Sinner16-4, 7-5, 7-62025 Madrid Open \u2013 2RMatteo Arnaldi446-3, 6-42025 Monte-Carlo Masters \u2013 2RAlejandro Tabilo326-3, 6-42025 Miami Open \u2013 FJakub Mensik547-6, 7-62025 Indian Wells \u2013 2RBotic van de Zandschulp856-2, 3-6, 6-12025 Qatar Open \u2013 1RMatteo Berrettini357-6, 6-22025 Australian Open \u2013 SFAlexander Zverev27-6 (RET)2025 Brisbane International \u2013 SFReilly Opelka2937-6, 6-3Novak Djokovic\u2019s 2025 defeats<\/p>\n

Djokovic has lost four matches to players ranked outside the top 50 this year (Valentin Vacherot, Jakub Mensik, Botic van de Zandschulp, Reilly Opelka).<\/p>\n

He had only previously lost four or more ATP matches to players outside the top 50 in 2018 and 2006.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen if Djokovic will struggle against lower-ranked players again in 2026, but it will certainly be something to look out for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover Valentin Vacherot made his ATP Tour breakthrough at the Shanghai Masters. Ranked 204th…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[753,64,63,3592,85,747,125801],"class_list":{"0":"post-240620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-novak-djokovic","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis","14":"tag-valentin-vacherot"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}