Monte-Carlo Masters: Wildcard Vacherot defeats Struff

Monégasque wildcard Valentin Vacherot moved into the second round of the Monte-Carlo Masters by defeating German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-2, 6-1 at Monte-Carlo Country Club on Sunday.

With his first tour-level win, he becomes the first man from Monaco to win a match at the tournament since 2009.

“Before a match, it’s always difficult to expect something,” he told the media afterwards. “We never know what’s going to happen, but it’s been a while. But I feel extremely well. I have been playing well, especially the past weeks.

“So there was something in my head telling me that it was going to be my day, my week, and I played very well. But of course I couldn’t expect winning in 58 minutes against a player like him. You can never know before the match. But it’s good for my body, and I didn’t spend too much energy waiting for what’s coming.”

Vacherot, ranked No 259, will face the winner of the match between Chilean Nicolas Jarry and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, the No 15 seed, next.

Monte-Carlo Masters 1000, other first-round results (Monte-Carlo Country Club, clay, EUR 6.128.940, most recent results first):

• Fabio Fognini vs. Francisco Cerundolo
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Daniel Altmaier
• Tallon Griekspoor vs. Arthur Fils

• Dusan Lajovic vs. Flavio Cobolli
• Gael Monfils vs. Fabian Marozsan
• Roberto Bautista Agut vs. Brandon Nakashima
• Alexei Popyrin vs. Ugo Humbert
• Frances Tiafoe vs. Miomir Kecmanovic
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs. Ben Shelton
• Marcos Giron vs. Denis Shapovalov
• Tomas Machac vs. Sebastian Baez
• Alexandre Muller vs. Camilo Ugo Carabelli
• Daniil Medvedev vs. Karen Khachanov
• Nicolas Jarry vs. Grigor Dimitrov
• Stan Wawrinka vs. Alejandro Tabilo
• Lorenzo Sonego vs. Pedro Martinez Portero
• Holger Rune vs. Nuno Borges
• Yunchaokete Bu vs. Lorenzo Musetti
• Jiri Lehecka vs. Sebastian Korda
• Mariano Navone vs. Matteo Berrettini
• Jordan Thompson vs. Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard
• Matteo Arnaldi vs. Richard Gasquet: sunday