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<\/p>\n ATP Tour
\n Rivalries of 2025: Vacherot vs. Rinderknech<\/p>\n
Cousins faced off twice across 17 days in one of the stories of the ATP Tour season<\/p>\n
November 27, 2025<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lintao Zhang\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Valentin Vacherot leads Arthur Rinderknech 2-0 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.
\n By Grant Thompson<\/p>\n
To mark the end of another thrilling season, ATPTour.com is unveiling our annual ‘Best Of’ series<\/a>, which will reflect on the most intriguing rivalries, matches, comebacks, upsets and more. This week, we are looking at the best rivalries of the year. <\/p>\n Not even Hollywood could script what unfolded this season between Valentin Vacherot<\/a> and Arthur Rinderknech<\/a>.<\/p>\n They may be opponents on court, but Vacherot and Rinderknech are, more importantly, cousins. Their respective fairytale runs to a once-in-a-lifetime showdown in the Rolex Shanghai Masters<\/a> final represented one of tennis\u2019 most improbable recent storylines, while they also faced off again 17 days later at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Paris.<\/p>\n ATPTour.com recaps the unlikely saga.<\/p>\n Shanghai Final, Vacherot d. Rinderknech 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 Rinderknech also downed five seeds en route to the final. After the Frenchman secured his semi-final win against 2019 champion Daniil Medvedev<\/a>, Vacherot came onto the court to greet Vacherot. They shared an emotional hug \u2014 laughing, smiling and even crying as they looked ahead to the championship clash.<\/p>\n It was Vacherot, then World No. 204, who capped his dream run by becoming the lowest-ranked ATP Masters 1000 champion in history (since 1990). Despite a strong start from Rinderknech, the Monegasque edged his cousin in by-then familiar fashion, rallying from a set down for the sixth time across his nine Shanghai matches. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was just some unreal moments for both of us, for our family,\u201d said Vacherot, who was later in tears as he praised his cousin at the trophy ceremony. \u201cUnfortunately, there was one winner. But our family won, and the sport of tennis won as well, because the story we just wrote is amazing. The emotions were just everywhere after the match.\u201d<\/p>\n You May Also Like: Why Vacherot’s fairytale Shanghai run was crazier than anyone knew: ‘Is this real life?’<\/a><\/p>\n Paris R2, Vacherot d. Rinderknech 6-7(9), 6-3, 6-4 This time, it was a second-round clash instead of a high-stakes final, but nonetheless, intrigue remained around the in-form family members. Across nearly three hours, Vacherot and Rinderknech engaged in several entertaining rallies and battled for court positioning. Rinderknech saved two set points to grab the opener, but Vacherot, brimming with the free-swinging confidence from his Shanghai run, came roaring back.<\/p>\n The difference was in the pressure moments. Vacherot fended off 11 of the 13 break points he faced against Rinderknech, while creating 11 of his own break opportunities and converting five, according to Infosys ATP Stats.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what\u2019s helping me is that I\u2019m having so much fun. This is all new to me,\u201d Vacherot, who went onto reach the Paris quarter-finals, told Tennis Channel after the win. \u201cI\u2019m playing on the big stage now. It\u2019s not now when I should be feeling pressure. That\u2019s where I want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATP Tour Rivalries of 2025: Vacherot vs. Rinderknech Cousins faced off twice across 17 days in one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-316690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
It is safe to say nobody saw this final coming, including Vacherot and Rinderknech themselves. But against all odds, the cousins, who in 2018 both played at Texas A&M University, stood across the net for an ATP Masters 1000 title showdown in Shanghai. Vacherot was two points from defeat in qualifying at the Chinese event, yet managed to make the main draw and then went on to defeat five seeded players, including record four-time champion Novak Djokovic<\/a> in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n
Less than three weeks after their Shanghai clash, Vacherot and Rinderknech encountered each other again at the Rolex Paris Masters<\/a>, where they each received a main-draw wild card. Both players were also present at the live draw ceremony at La D\u00e9fense Arena, where the bracket revealed the potential for a second-round meeting between the two cousins \u2014 another storyline that immediately caught the attention of fans and organisers alike.<\/p>\nValentin Vacherot signs ‘I love my family’ after defeating Arthur Rinderknech<\/a> in Paris.” style=”width:100%;” src=”https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/-\/media\/images\/news\/2025\/11\/20\/15\/22\/vacherot-camer-lens.jpg”>
Valentin Vacherot<\/a> signs ‘I love my family’ after defeating Arthur Rinderknech<\/a> in Paris. Credit: Julian Finney\/Getty Images<\/p>\n