The South African, a former world No. 31, has not dropped a set in qualifying or the main draw at the Chengdu Open. He did not face a break point against Vacherot and leads their head-to-head 1-0.
“It feels great. Obviously I’ve had to grind a lot of Challengers to even be able to play in some of these tournaments again after being injured, so it feels very good,” Harris said. He reached the semi-finals here as a qualifier in 2019. Next he plays fifth seed Hubert Hurkacz.
Harris said extra matches in Chengdu helped. “It was my fourth match, feeling quite comfortable with the conditions, the court. Obviously it was his first match, so a little bit tricky here for him at the start and I used it to my advantage nicely.”
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina won on his first appearance since July, beating Juan Manuel Cerúndolo 6-4, 6-4. The Spaniard, ranked 29, missed the North American hard-court swing including the US Open through injury.
“I knew it was going to be a tricky match, not easy to start again after two months,” he said. “Cerúndolo is very solid from the baseline, so I knew that I needed to be aggressive.”
Davidovich Fokina won 79 per cent of first-serve points and 11 of 12 points at the net in one hour and 22 minutes. He is 3-0 against Cerúndolo and into his 36th tour-level quarter-final. He next faces French qualifier Alexandre Muller, who beat Federico Cina 7-6(3), 6-1.
Harris’s run from qualifying and Davidovich Fokina’s comeback set up a last-eight day that already has an upset and a return at its centre.