In one of the most unexpected finals in ATP history, underdog Arthur Rinderknech has a shot of claiming the biggest title of his career when he plays his cousin at the Shanghai Masters.
The French world No.54 continued his fairytale run on Saturday with a comeback win over former US Open champion Daniil Medvedev, who he managed to oust 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. 30-year-old Rinderknech has beaten four top 20 players in the tournament, with his other victories being over Alexander Zverev, Jiri Lehecka and Felix Auger-Aliassime. Overall, he has a win-loss record of 8-3 against top 20 players since June.
Through to only his second ATP Final after the 2022 Adelaide International, Rinderknech will next take on his cousin and fellow underdog Valentin Vacherot, who plays for Monaco. Vacherot continued his extraordinary run in Shanghai by stunning Novak Djokovic in straight sets. Earlier in the week, he also beat Holger Rune and Alexander Bublik. Currently ranked 204th in the world, he is now projected to rise to at least 58th in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.
“In the best dreams, we couldn’t have dreamt about this, so I can’t even say it’s a dream, because I don’t think even one person in our family dreamt about it,” atptour.com quoted Rinderknech as saying. “So it wasn’t a dream, it’s just a dream that came out of nowhere. We started believing it, I would say, in the quarters, maybe…
“Now we are here, we fought through so many matches and somehow we are the [two] guys standing at the end, so it’s just incredible.”
The upcoming showdown will be only the third time a Masters final has been contested between two unseeded players since the format was introduced in 1990. Furthermore, Rinderknech is the oldest French player to reach their maiden Masters final and Vacherot the lowest-ranked player from any country to do so.
“Tomorrow there will be two winners anyway,” Rinderknech told reporters. “There’s going to be a match, of course, but today we won everything. We couldn’t win any more.”
Sunday will be the first time a Masters final has been between two cousins. The winner will earn 1,000 ranking points and $1,124,380 in prize money.
