"Grass is dead, Wimbledon is dead" - No grass swing for Valentin Vacherot as stress fracture in foot halts progress

After what looked like a hopeful clay swing cruelly halted short in Pars due to injury, Valentin Vacherot has unveiled the extent of the injury. It has seen him label the grass swing as 'dead' while confirming his Wimbledon debut will not come this year.

The Monegasque has enjoyed one of the most sudden and unbelievable rises in tennis. Despite not even being high enough to attempt to qualify for the Shanghai Masters, he went on to go win the tournament last year in an unexpected final showdown against cousin Arthur Rinderknech.

This not only launched him into the mainstream but opened up a whole load of other opportunities. Now ranked inside the top 20 after making it as high as 16th in the world, he is continuing his brilliant form in recent times, going deep in big tournaments while posing a threat to many on the big stage.

However, he will not be able to test his grass skills out. Following a brilliant run on home soil, Vacherot was dumped out in the second round of the Madrid Open. He would pull out of the subsequent event in Rome and Hamburg before competing in the Roland Garros main draw for just the second time. He started with a win, but it would all come crashing down from there.

Injury forced him to pull out of the event, giving Alejandro Tabilo a free pathway into the third round as he waited to see the extent of the damage. It would not make for pretty reading.

The withdrawals from prior events came from a stress fracture in his foot with significant bone edema. "Officially, it's a stress fracture with significant bone edema. I started feeling it at the end of Madrid, which is why I didn't play Rome and Hamburg before Roland to try to take as much time as possible to heal," he stated in an episode of 'Prime à Roland-Garros'.

A hefty period on the sidelines will now have to be undertaken with any dreams of making a highly anticipated Wimbledon debut halted for the time being. "Grass is dead, Wimbledon is dead. If I'm back on the match courts in a month and a half, I'll take it as a reset to arrive fresh for this second part of the season." This also rules out expeditions to Queen's and Eastbourne.

This time last year, many tennis fans would not be accustomed to the name Vacherot. Now, they are following the 27-year-old's career as his magical rise is set to be tested.

The big elephant in the room is that Shanghai Masters run. 1000 points will come off his tally unless he is able to muster up a deep run and recoup all of them. Fortunately, that was seemingly not a one-off run. If he does lose 1000 points, he will fall down to 41st in the live rankings in this current moment in time. It does help that he has very little to defend hence his status from last year.

Following that competition in China, Vacherot backed it up with a run to the quarter-final at the Paris Masters. His most cherished run has to be on home soil when he battled hard against some top players to reach the semi-final stage. He was against the wall for much of it but was cheered on by his home support and was only halted in his tracks by the reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz.

He has since won just one match which may have been impacted by that foot injury. A hampered clay swing is not ideal with this a surface that he is fond of, wasting the chance of gaining more points and pushing higher up the rankings with those notable deep runs protected to an extent in case of a huge points swing.

It is hard to tell when he will be back with a nasty injury like that troublesome to recover from and needs caution. Following the grass swing, the tennis traverses back to North America. There are also a few tournaments back on clay which could be tantalising if he is fit enough to feature. The big two are the Canadian Open and Cincinnati Open, being held back-to-back in a busy August. This leads directly onto the US Open, and then the Asian swing. Stating that he will be 'fresh' for the second part of the season, Vacherot is determined to get back to winning ways once fit and healthy once more.