Vacherot: "Ce changement de vie m'aurait rendu fou si j'avais 19 ou 20 ans"

Valentin Vacherot arrives at Roland Garros 2026 at the peak of his career and with the feeling of having definitively consolidated his breakthrough. After several years competing in challengers and qualifiers, the 27-year-old player faces the Parisian Grand Slam as a seed and with a maturity that he himself recognizes as key to managing the new reality within professional tennis.

During the Media Day prior to the start of Roland Garros 2026, the good old Valentin Vacherot talked about the foot injury that forced him to withdraw from Rome and Hamburg, explained how he tries to stay grounded despite the increasing media attention, and shared interesting reflections about the economic distribution in tennis, the impact of training with Jannik Sinner, and the special experience of competing in the Parisian Grand Slam practically "at home".

The caution with his injury before Roland Garros

"It wasn't in Rome, but towards the end of Madrid, that I started to feel discomfort in my foot. It's something that had happened to me before, but this time it became more uncomfortable than usual, and we decided to be cautious."

"It was tough not to play in Rome because it's an amazing tournament, and I would have loved to stay there longer, but now I know much better how to manage injuries and I'm not willing to take unnecessary risks. I've been training again for over a week now, and I have enough time to arrive fully prepared for the debut. Right now, I feel good physically."

The special significance of playing Roland Garros

"It's very special because two years ago this was my first Grand Slam when I played the qualifiers. I had always dreamed of being here, and now I return as a seed, so it's a quite different feeling. Just having to take a one-hour flight to come to a Grand Slam changes a lot compared to what I had experienced before. I'm really enjoying this experience."

The pressure management and his new status

"I don't accept everything that's proposed to me because I try to stay focused, but at the same time, I want to enjoy all of this because it's something I dreamed of since I was a child."

"I think I've managed to separate quite well what happened at the end of last year and start this season from scratch, trying to be consistent with this new status."

"If this change had come when I was 19 or 20, it would probably have been more complicated, but now I'm 27 and I feel I have enough perspective to understand everything that's happening."

His reflection on the economic distribution in tennis

"I'm probably not the ideal person to answer this debate because I've only been regularly playing in major tournaments for six or seven months. I spent three or four years moving between the 200th and 300th ranking positions, and I honestly believe those players are the ones who should earn more. Still, it's also true that the prize money has grown a lot in recent years."

"I understand the point of view of the top players because they have a lot of exposure and perhaps feel that the growth is not fast enough, but after so many years in challengers, I personally have no reason to complain."

The impact of training with Jannik Sinner

"I've been fortunate to train twice with Jannik, and honestly, he is a different player. It's not just about the ball speed or how he strikes, but the ball always comes back. You can train with him for two hours and hardly see unforced errors. That's the big difference compared to other top players. Yesterday, I felt as if I had trained for a whole week after practicing with him. You learn a lot in a very short time."

His adaptation to the Parisian heat

"The heat doesn't bother me at all. I grew up in Monaco and spent five years in Texas playing in temperatures close to 40 degrees, so I'm quite accustomed to it. The really challenging part is when you go from playing in 15 degrees to 30 degrees overnight, but here, we've had enough time to adapt."

After years battling away from the media spotlight, Valentin Vacherot faces Roland Garros 2026 with the tranquility of someone who feels he finally belongs to the ATP circuit. The Monegasque aims to take advantage of the Parisian experience without losing perspective and to continue consolidating a progression that has taken him from challengers to competing toe-to-toe with some of the world's best players.