World No. 204 Vacherot has beaten four consecutive seeds to set up a meeting with Djokovic, who is into his 10th Shanghai Masters semi-final.
Monegasque No. 1 Vacherot overcame 14th-seed Alexander Bublik, 27th-seed Tallon Griekspoor and 10th-seed Holger Rune, as well as advancing past 20th-seed Tomas Machac after he retired hurt midway through the second set of their match.
The Serb, who is based in Monaco and has been coached previously by Vacherot’s coach Benjamin Balleret, was delighted to see the Monegasque player doing so well.
Djokovic said: “(It’s) great for Monegasque tennis, we have one of the biggest tournaments on our tour in Monaco obviously and I am really glad for him and Benjamin Balleret, his coach. I have known for many years and trained with him while being based in Monaco over the last 15 years so (it’s an) amazing story for him.
“This tournament he has taken out top players in the world, I don’t know how many (in the) top 10, top 15 he has taken out but it is really impressive what he is doing, so we are both going to have a day off and hopefully good semi-finals.”
Djokovic had to battle hard past Bergs in testing conditions in Shanghai and could be seen struggling at times.
In changeover breaks, he used an inhaler and smelling salts to battle the humidity, which the commentary team said reached as high as 80%.
Despite battling the conditions and an ankle injury, Djokovic was able to win the first set 6-3 and looked on course to breeze through when he served for the match at 5-4.
However, two stunning groundstrokes by Bergs saw him break Djokovic’s serve to prolong the match.
Djokovic showed his experience, though, when he calmly and immediately broke back to give himself another chance to serve it out.
And this time he made no mistake to complete the straight-sets victory.
It was by no means a straightforward win in such a challenging environment, though.
“Pretty much everything (was difficult), just trying to stay alive to be honest on the court,” Djokovic said.
“(It was my) first encounter with Bergs, (he is a) great guy, obviously a lot of firepower in his game, at times I just tried to play an extra ball in the court and make him miss the ball, that is what happened.
“I should have closed out the match at 5-4, he played a good game and again I was a little too passive.
“It is very challenging conditions these few weeks for all the players and just trying to stay alive on the court and glad to overcome this hurdle.”
Djokovic sets new Masters 1000 record
Victory over Bergs meant Djokovic became the oldest player in the sport’s history to reach a Masters 1000 semi-final, at 38 years and 139 days old.
Djokovic has beaten his own record, which he set in Miami earlier this year.
The Shanghai Masters is the second Masters 1000 event in which Djokovic has reached the last four 10 times, with 13 appearances in the Italian Open semi-finals.
Djokovic also extended his record as the player with the most Masters 1000 semi-finals, bringing up his 80th.
Only Rafael Nadal (76) and Roger Federer (66) also surpassed 50 semi-finals.
