It’s very simple. Valentin Vacherot won Basel on Sunday, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 against Jiri Lehecka, and he joins Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic as the only players to have won in Shanghai and in Basel. I said it back in January.
Well, January. I said that a player who wins Shanghai ends up winning something else. Check. Not word for word, but the spirit was there. His Shanghai title is a year old, this one is the first since. Twelve months is exactly the delay I’ve been announcing for years to confirm a first big title. Nobody listens to me.
Now, the final. Down 4-2 in the first set, he threw his racket near a ball boy and Lehecka took the set 6-2. There, I admit it, I switched the television off. Careful, I’m not saying the opposite of what I said. I’m clarifying: I switched off so as not to bring bad luck. When I switched back on, he was leading. In ninety percent of cases, and I’m being kind, that’s how you win a final.
Me, in Kitzbühel, in ’92, I threw my racket too. Not near a ball boy, at the fence. And I lost the set. Well, the context was different: there was wind, and the opponent became a top 10 player, which proves I was playing at an absurd level.
Jean-Pol, in January you said Shanghai was a fluke. I wrote it down in my folder.
A fluke that repeats, Céline, is called a trend. All right?
And I’m marking the date for Paris. First round, Vacherot against Novak Djokovic. I say the winner will be the one who wins the last point. Lehecka plays Alex Michelsen, with Carlos Alcaraz waiting behind. Nobody at the RTBF (the French-speaking Belgian public broadcaster) has called me yet to talk about it, right?
It’s true, we checked: Tennis Majors.
