AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 19, 2026

Valentin Vacherot

Press Conference

V. VACHEROT/M. Damm

6-4, 6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: You've had a good start today. How much confidence does a match like today give you going into a Grand Slam?

VALENTIN VACHEROT: Yeah, a lot because I mean first of all it's my first Grand Slam win, main draw, so that's the first line. No, also because I knew he was going to be a hell of a tough match. Probably one of the worst qualifier to pick up because he's tall, he serves well, he's really aggressive.

But on the other side it's perfect because I knew I had to bring my A-game today if I wanted to win. And I thought I played more than well. So yeah really happy.

THE MODERATOR: English questions.

Q. What did it feel like to play a Grand Slam match as a seed?

VALENTIN VACHEROT: It's weird (laughter). It's weird. I don't even think about the fact that I'm seeded. Just as I said to the French medias, like, there's like this little kid today that was going to play a three-out-of-five match because my first one was two years ago. It was my second one today. My first one straightaway in the main draw.

And, yeah, I just wanted to whatever happened really enjoy the moment and be good in my head. I did that. And I'm really happy, yeah.

Q. Did you tell yourself things to calm yourself down as you were...

VALENTIN VACHEROT: I wasn't stressed. I was calm. I was sure of myself. But, as I said, Martin is probably one of the four or five toughest qualifier to pick up with his serve and his game that's so aggressive.

I knew I needed in the head, like, on my confidence, my focus needed to be at 110%, not just 100. And I think that helped me because I had, yeah, three break points and I broke three times. Yeah, so really happy today.

Q. The NCAA champion won a big match yesterday. I imagine you noticed that, Michael Zheng?

VALENTIN VACHEROT: Yeah.

Q. I was wondering what you thought of that and does it make you think good things about college players?

VALENTIN VACHEROT: He's one of the best college players of these last few years. I'm still following college tennis. I mean not as much, of course, as before, but I'm still following the national tournaments and everything.

His name was always coming up on winning the singles NCAA National Champion. So I'm like, if you're a national champion in NCAA your level is in the top 100. So I'm really not surprised to see him beat a top 50 guy. That's really good for college tennis.