Tokyo: Vacherot beats Fils and reaches the semifinals

Valentin Vacherot is the surprise of the quarterfinals at the Japan Open in Tokyo. The Frenchman beat Arthur Fils, ranked No. 9 before the match, 7-5 4-6 6-4 and earned a semifinal at an ATP 500 event. On Monday, October 5, he will meet Jiri Lehecka.

The result matters in the rankings too. With the win Vacherot climbs to No. 14 in the live ATP rankings with 2,475 points: it is the best ranking of his career, recorded on October 4, 2026. He has already collected 225 points since the start of the tournament and, compared with July 12, he has gained six places.

Fils, by contrast, leaves with a bitterer picture than he hoped for. The Frenchman is No. 10 with 3,250 points, after adding 100 points for reaching the quarterfinals in Tokyo. Alex De Minaur is ahead of him by 100 points; behind him is Novak Djokovic, 70 points away. His career high remains No. 9, reached on September 28, 2026, just a week ago.

The match was a small seesaw, as the score tells. Vacherot won the first set 7-5 and moved ahead. Fils reacted, taking the second set 6-4 and levelling the match. In the third set it was Vacherot again who decided things, closing it 6-4 and booking his place in the semifinals.

Nor was it a foregone script given how the two had got there. Fils reached the quarterfinals without dropping a set: 6-3 6-2 over Luca Van Assche in the third round, then 6-3 7-5 over Frances Tiafoe in the round of 16. Vacherot had to fight harder: 7-6(2) 7-6(4) over Alexander Blockx and 4-6 7-6(5) 6-4 over Stefanos Tsitsipas, the longest match of the tournament at 33 games.

For Vacherot the Tokyo week has therefore been a crescendo of tight matches. Two tie-breaks against Blockx, a set lost and recovered against Tsitsipas, another set lost against Fils: the Frenchman showed he can stay in the match when the score tightens. On hard courts, that quality is often worth more than any single shot.

Hard court, after all, is his surface. In the site's data, Vacherot's 2025 is 11-4 at the main-tour events, with one title and one final, and 7-0 on hard courts. His overall record from 2023 to 2025 is 11 wins and 8 losses. His last ten matches also tell a story of ups and downs: five wins and five losses.

Indeed 2026 had not handed him a continuous run. Before Tokyo came the round of 16 in Chengdu, lost to Lloyd Harris 6-4 7-6(5), and the third round of the US Open, where he fell to Tiafoe 6-4 6-2 6-4 after beating Kamil Majchrzak and Aleksandar Kovacevic. At the Masters 1000 events in Montreal and Cincinnati he stopped in the third round, against Mariano Navone and Adolfo Daniel Vallejo.

Fils has had a very different summer behind him. The Frenchman won the Cincinnati Masters 1000, beating Tiafoe in the final 6-3 1-6 6-0 after getting past Flavio Cobolli in the semifinals and Thiago Agustin Tirante in the quarterfinals. In Montreal he reached the last eight, stopped by Rafael Jodar 7-6(5) 6-3, while at the US Open he lost in the first round to Tsitsipas in four sets.

His career, in the tournaments followed by the site, has solid numbers: 67 wins and 49 losses between 2023 and 2025, three titles and four finals. In 2025 his record was 19-11. His recent form is good too: he has won seven of his last ten matches. And Tokyo was familiar ground, because in 2024 he won the tournament, beating Ugo Humbert in the final 5-7 7-6(6) 6-3.

On the head-to-head front, the site's data say the record is 1-0 for Vacherot: Tokyo is the only meeting recorded between the two in the synchronized tournaments. As the page warns, the history grows over time, so it is a number to read with caution. The score, in any case, speaks of two players very close in level.

The Japan Open, meanwhile, is living through an unpredictable edition. After 28 matches played in the 32-player draw featuring 17 nations, the tournament counts 12 tie-breaks, 11 matches that went to a deciding set and a single retirement: Denis Shapovalov's against Carlos Alcaraz, at 7-6(3) 2-1 for the Spaniard. No set has finished 6-0.

Alcaraz is in fact the defending champion. In 2025 he won the title by beating Taylor Fritz in the final 6-4 6-4, and in Tokyo he has 500 points to defend. The site's list of past champions also includes Fils, winner in 2024, and Fritz, winner in 2022 over Tiafoe 7-6(3) 7-6(2). For Vacherot, joining that list would be an enormous leap.

The draw offers two semifinals. In the first Alcaraz faces Jaume Antoni Munar Clar, who in the quarterfinals eliminated Kyrian Jacquet 6-4 6-2 after already beating Fritz in three sets. In the second, Lehecka, who in the quarterfinals routed Vallejo 6-1 6-1, takes on Vacherot. Lehecka eliminated Zizou Bergs and Humbert in the earlier rounds, both in three sets.

The rankings can still move. Vacherot now has 2,475 points: if he wins the semifinal he rises to 2,605, if he wins the tournament he reaches 2,775. Ahead of him are Taylor Fritz at No. 12 with 2,880 points and Rafael Jodar at No. 13 with 2,659; behind him, Jakub Mensik at No. 15 is only 20 points adrift. Every round, therefore, is worth places.

Then there is the calendar. Over the next six weeks Vacherot has 200 points to defend, those from last year's quarterfinal at the Paris Masters 1000. A good finish in Tokyo would let him approach that stretch with a more comfortable margin over his immediate rivals, avoiding the need to chase in the autumn.

For Fils the reading is different but not negative. The Frenchman remains in the top-10 zone, with a season that already includes a Masters 1000 title. With 3,250 points he still has a 70-point cushion over Djokovic, who follows at No. 11, and the Tokyo defeat does not erase his summer results.

The verdict from Tokyo is clear in any case: in the quarterfinals, the one who could suffer a little longer than the other won. Vacherot did not have the favorite's tag, but he kept pace with an opponent who won Cincinnati and beat him by the narrowest of margins. Tomorrow, against Lehecka, he will have the chance to take another step toward the final.

To follow the tournament in real time, the site's pages with results, player profiles and head-to-heads are updated every round. The Lehecka-Vacherot semifinal is scheduled for Monday, October 5, after the one between Alcaraz and Munar Clar.