{"id":193229,"date":"2025-10-11T17:23:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T17:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/193229\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T17:23:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T17:23:11","slug":"arthur-rinderknech-and-valentin-vacherot-the-two-cousins-making-shanghai-masters-history-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/193229\/","title":{"rendered":"Arthur Rinderknech and Valentin Vacherot: The two cousins making Shanghai Masters history"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As Arthur Rinderknech thumped the final ace to book his place in the Shanghai Masters<\/a> semi-finals, the Frenchman raised a finger and pointed to his coaching box. Rinderknech locked eyes with his cousin, Valentin Vacherot, who had celebrated the exact same way the day before. A wide grin spread across Rinderknech\u2019s face as he joined his cousin in the semi-finals in Shanghai and set the family group chat ablaze back home. <\/p>\n

The final weeks of the tennis season can often feel strained, particularly so this week in Shanghai <\/a>as exhausted players have battled not just their weary bodies and minds but the brutal heat and humidity. But amid the general exhaustion, a wonderful story has broken through, one involving the 30-year-old journeyman Rinderknech and his younger cousin Vacherot, the history-making 26-year-old Monegasque, who started the week as an alternate in qualifying and ranked outside the world\u2019s top 200. <\/p>\n

Now, they will meet in Sunday\u2019s final<\/a>. Spurred on by a stated commitment to \u201cfollow Val\u201d, Rinderknech backed up Vacherot\u2019s stunning upset of world No 11 Holger Rune <\/a>by defeating the US Open semi-finalist Felix Auger-Aliassime. Vacherot then beat Novak Djokovic in straight sets in Saturday\u2019s first semi-final \u2013 leaving the court after signing \u201callez Arthur\u201d on a camera \u2013 before Rinderknech followed by knocking out Daniil Medvedev in three. <\/p>\n

Of the two cousins, Vacherot\u2019s run to the final has been the biggest surprise. After being sidelined for most of the second half of last season due to a right shoulder injury, Vacherot has spent the 2025 season entering Challenger events \u2013 other than his home tournament in Monaco, where he received a wildcard. With his ranking not high enough to guarantee a spot in Shanghai qualifying, Vacherot gambled on taking a trip to China. It paid off. Enough players dropped out before the deadline to allow Vacherot to enter qualifying as an alternate. <\/p>\n

\"France\u2019s<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

France\u2019s Arthur Rinderknech celebrated his quarter-final win by pointing towards his cousin Valentin Vacherot (AFP\/Getty)\"Rinderknech<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Rinderknech celebrates after winning his semi-final match against Russia’s Daniil Medvedev (Reuters)<\/p>\n

He has not looked back, winning eight matches and taking out five seeded players in a row in Alexander Bublik, Tomas Machac, Tallon Griekspoor, Rune and Djokovic, to become the second-lowest-ranked player to reach a semi-final in ATP Masters history. Vacherot, who is coached by his half-brother Benjamin Balleret, is also the first player representing Monaco to reach an ATP Tour final. The principality is home to many a top player, but has no history of producing them. <\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t come as a qualifier; I came as an alternate. I wasn\u2019t even sure I was going to play qualifying,\u201d Vacherot said after his three-set win over Rune. The 26-year-old is now set to enter the world\u2019s top 100 for the first time. \u201cThis is just unbelievable for me. I\u2019m just so happy and living the dream.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Vacherot<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Vacherot also celebrated his quarter-final win by pointing towards Rinderknech, who was watching courtside (AP)\"Valentin<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Valentin Vacherot celebrates his victory against Novak Djokovic (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Djokovic knows Vacherot\u2019s coach Balleret, himself a former player who reached 204 in the world rankings, from training and being based in Monaco. \u201cAmazing story for him,\u201d Djokovic said before their semi-final. <\/p>\n

So, too, for the older cousin Rinderknech, whose big breakthrough comes after turning 30 but following months of strong form and a first-round win over Alexander Zverev<\/a> at Wimbledon. Rinderknech also beat world No 3 Zverev in Shanghai and, after knocking out Auger-Aliassime in the quarter-finals, now has seven wins against top-20 opponents since June, as many as he had managed in his entire career to that point. Rinderknech will now reach a career-high of at least 37 thanks to a career-first Masters final. <\/p>\n

But the magic of Rinderknech and Vacherot is that their stories are intertwined. The cousins overlapped while at college at Texas A&M University; they were teammates for two and a half years between 2016 and 2018. Now, after years of grinding away on tour, they have managed to produce their biggest results while the other has a front-row view. <\/p>\n

\u201cI followed my cousin,\u201d Rinderknech said, pointing towards Vacherot. \u201cHe was going through the emotions on Thursday and I am trying to follow and battle and do the same as him. The whole family is following from home. We are in our own little world here. It has been incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-193229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}