The most unlikely and surreal Masters 1000 final in history takes place on Sunday during the Rolex Shanghai Masters.
At number 54 in the world, Arthur Rinderknech is shockingly a Masters 1000 finalist. However, his opponent is exactly 150 places below him. Valentin Vacherot comes in at 204th, the lowest-ranked finalist in the history of the Masters 1000. And oh yeah, they’re cousins.
Yes, it will be a family affair when Rinderknech and Vacherot face off for the second time in their careers – and in the biggest match of their careers. Their only previous meeting came seven years ago at a hard-court Futures event in France, where Rinderknech cruised 6-2, 6-4.
It goes without saying that Vacherot’s breakthrough came completely out of nowhere. The Monaco native was not even on the initial qualifying list for direct entry, but he was admitted after a number of withdrawals. Vacherot was two points shy of a qualifying loss to Liam Draxl, but still prevailed 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4. The rest is of course history. The 26-year-old’s hard-to-believe run includes victories over Laslo Djere, Alexander Bublik, Tomas Machac, Tallon Greekpoor, Holger Rune and Novak Djokovic.
Rinderknech’s hot streak dates back to the US Open, where he advanced to the fourth round before losing to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz in three relatively competitive sets. The 30-year-old Frenchman booked his place in the Shanghai championship match by beating Hamad Medjedovic, Alex Michelsen, Alexander Zverev, Jiri Lehecka, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Daniil Medvedev. He is 12-3 in his last 15 games.
“In the best dreams we couldn’t have dreamed of this,” Rinderknech explained. “So I can’t even say it’s a dream because I don’t think anyone in our family even dreamed of it. So it wasn’t a dream; it’s just a dream that came out of nowhere.”
“We started to believe it… I would say in the quarter-finals maybe. Now here we are; we have fought so many matches and somehow we are the [two] guys who are at the end, so it’s just incredible.
You can pretty much throw rankings, results, and any other stats for this matchup out the window. It’s all about how each man handles the moment. Neither has ever been on this kind of stage, and a family member will be on the other side of the net.
Given Rinderknech’s much larger sample size of recent success and a large advantage in experience, he will likely have the upper hand. But that goes without saying something can happen in a matchup that is fascinating for several reasons.
Choice: Rinderknech in 3
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