SHANGHAI – Valentin Vacherot defeated his cousin Arthur Rinderknech 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 on Sunday to win the Shanghai Masters for the first title of his career after a stunning run from the qualifying rounds.
The 204th-ranked Vacherot, an unknown 26-year-old, was the lowest-ranked tournament winner in the history of the ATP Masters 1000 – and the first from the tiny Principality of Monaco.
It was also quite an achievement.
He stunned 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals to set up a final against the 30-year-old Rinderknech, who had defeated four-time major finalist Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion, in a remarkable semi-final of his own.
Vacherot produced a serving masterclass in the third set, with three consecutive love holds and 15 consecutive points, before finally losing a point in the eighth game with an unforced error.
Rinderknech served to stay in the match trailing 15-40 and saved one match point, but Vacherot wrong-footed him with another blistering forehand winner down the line to seal victory.
He held his face in his hands in disbelief before walking to the net to hug his cousin and then rushing to his team box to share a long hug with coach Benjamin Balleret, his half-brother and a former Monaco tennis player.
Balleret’s career highlight was a defeat to tennis great Roger Federer in the early rounds of the Monte Carlo Masters in 2006.
Nineteen years later, Federer stood in the crowd in Shanghai watching Rinderknech win the first set with an ace.
Vacherot secured an early break in the decider and then missed four break point chances in the fifth game as Rinderknech was granted a reprieve. The Frenchman immediately took a three-minute medical timeout for a massage treatment on his back and left shoulder.
But he could do nothing to stop his cousin’s momentum.
They have never played each other before on the professional tour, with Rinderknech winning their only meeting at a futures tournament in 2018.
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