Arthur Rinderknech joined his cousin, Valentin Vacherot, in the Shanghai Masters semi-final after a decisive 6-3 6-4 victory over Felix Auger-Aliassime on Friday.
Rinderknech was in the audience to witness Vacherot, a qualifier ranked outside the world’s top 200, defeat No. 10 seed Holger Rune in his own quarter-final match on Thursday – and he was stressed. Vacherot will face Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals, after the Serbian overcame illness to book his place in the final four.
The French star returned to the court on Friday to face 12th seed Auger-Aliassime and played a clinical match to win 6-3 6-4, with Vacherot cheering him on from his box. Although they are on opposite halves of the draw, and they’ll both have very tough semi-final matches, the cousins are now each one win away from facing off in Sunday’s final.
Rinderknech has enjoyed one of the best weeks of his career in Shanghai, starting when he took out world No. 3 Alexander Zverev in the third round.
Since then, the 30 year old has caused plenty of upsets, beating top-20 stars Jiri Lehecka and Auger-Aliassime to reach the last four.
The world No. 54 delivered a statement performance on Friday as he hit 20 winners to just eight unforced errors against Auger-Aliassime.
All the while, Vacherot was watching on from his box, already safely into the semi-finals.
The Monegasque qualifier earned the biggest win of his career when he beat Rune in the quarter-finals on Thursday and is now set to make his top 100 debut. And his success has been pushing Rinderknech on, as the Frenchman has always played one day later than his cousin.
“[It’s] huge for sure. First of all, I follow my cousin, so he’s going through the emotions and I’m trying to battle to follow. and do as good as him,” Rinderknech said after reaching his first Masters semi-final.
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“It’s been incredible since the beginning of the week. The whole family is following from home. We are in our little world here of our own, just me, Ben, Val, and my friend with me this week.
“It’s been incredible, it’s been unreal and today is a good performance for myself. Happy to get the win, two sets so I can be not as tired for tomorrow, which is great.”
Rinderknech had prepared for his own quarter-final clash by witnessing Vacherot battle back from a set deficit to defeat Rune on Thursday, and he confessed it proved more nerve-wracking being courtside than actually competing himself.
He added: “I was stressing so much yesterday during the whole match, I’m not used to watching guys playing on court and wanting him to win so much.
“I also stress next to Benjamin [Balleret, Vacherot’s brother and coach], trying not to show anything, like I am doing myself on court. I’m not trying to stress him or show him that I am under pressure as well because one more time, I wanted him to win so bad for the top 100, for the semi-final, for everything he deserved.
“Today was a lot more calm for me on court. I stressed so much yesterday that today I had nothing else to stress about so it was cool and again, happy for the win.”
Vacherot is set to face the challenge of his career as he squares off against 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals. On the other hand, Rinderknech is poised to play either Alex de Minaur or Daniil Medvedev.
Should the cousins pull off more surprises, they could potentially face each other in Sunday’s championship match.