The Shanghai Masters will witness one of the most astonishing climaxes of any tournament as two cousins, Valentin Vacherot and Arthur Rinderknech, extended their shocking breakthrough streaks with monumental wins and faced off in the final.
Vacherot continued his fairytale by toppling the injured Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-4 to become the lowest-ranked Masters 1000 finalist. In his first match against a top five opponent, the Monégasque world number 204 kept his composure as Djokovic appeared to struggle with his left glute early in the first set.
The Vacherot tournament was an incredible spectacle in itself, but was made even more remarkable by the events in the top half of the draw. His cousin Rinderknech, a more established name on the ATP tour at number 54, achieved the best result of his career. The Frenchman defeated former world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the second semi-final on Saturday.
As Rinderknech achieved his victory, Vacherot walked in disbelief before embracing his cousin.
“I can’t even say it’s a dream because I don’t think anyone in our family has even dreamed of it,” Rinderknech said. “We started to believe it, I would say, in the quarter-finals, maybe… Now here we are, we’ve fought so many matches and somehow we’re the guys standing at the end. It’s just unbelievable.”
Vacherot, the second-lowest direct entry in the qualifying draw, has enjoyed one of the most surprising successes at a major tournament, winning eight matches in the past two weeks. That included wins over No. 14 Alexander Bublik and 10th seed Holger Rune, in addition to this huge win over fourth seed Djokovic.
“This is just insane,” Vacherot said in court. “It was an hour and forty minutes of pure joy, even though not many people wanted me to continue. He is really appreciated here. I got a little lost in all his titles when they announced him, but it was a surreal experience.”
While Vacherot’s career-high ranking is No. 110, the second and third lowest-ranked Masters 1000 semifinalists, No. 191 Andrei Pavel and No. 152 Borna Coric, were former top 20 players who had fallen down the rankings. Something like this has never happened at a Masters 1000 event on the ATP tour.
The cousins, who played college tennis for the Texas A&M Aggies in the U.S., cheered each other on in China. After clinching the victory, Vacherot signed a TV camera lens: “Aggies on top! Allez, Arthur!”
Vacherot’s joy was in stark contrast to Djokovic’s misery as the 38-year-old continued to fight against his own body. This had already been a challenging week for the Serb, who suffered severely from the stifling heat and humidity during the opening rounds and vomited several times on the track.
It seemed he had recovered from those early difficulties, but it soon became clear that he was struggling. Djokovic took a medical timeout at 3-4 in the first set and despite the crowd urging him on, he was unable to move properly.
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Facing an injured player can still be a challenge, especially when that opponent is Djokovic and Vacherot held his nerve in a lengthy final match. He looked apologetic as he shook Djokovic’s hand, but the Serb admirably encouraged him during their embrace: “You deserve it. You deserve it, man. You played unbelievable,” he said.
Djokovic had been trying to become the oldest Masters 1000 champion, having already become the oldest quarterfinalist at this level. He has shown this year that he is still the third best in the world, behind the untouchable duo of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. However, there is a reason why no one at his age has achieved the milestones he continues to achieve. The numerous physical problems Djokovic has faced in between his positive performances this year have underlined the difficulty of continuing to compete at the highest level.
In some ways, Djokovic may reflect on this result even more bitterly than some of his recent grand slam losses. Although he has been defeated by Alcaraz and Sinner in the past three major tournaments, things finally seemed to turn in his favor this week after Alcaraz withdrew due to the ankle injury he suffered during his title run in Tokyo and Sinner subsequently withdrew from his third round match against Tallon Greekpoor due to the tough conditions.
Djokovic has recognized that Alcaraz and Sinner are a level above him at the moment, but if he continues to put himself in good positions he could give himself a few more chances to achieve great things. This week was one of those opportunities for the 24-time Grand Slam champion, who has not won a Masters 1000 event since 2023. Instead, his body failed him again.
Meanwhile, the Wuhan Open will feature an all-American final, with Jessica Pegula exacting revenge for her recent US Open semi-final loss to Aryna Sabalenka, narrowly beating the world number 1 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(2). Sixth seed Pegula will face third seed Coco Gauff after the 21-year-old defeated Jasmine Paolini to win 6-4, 6-3.
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