As Arthur Rinderknech thumped the final ace to book his place in the Shanghai Masters semi-finals, the Frenchman raised a finger and pointed to his coaching box. Rinderknech locked eyes with his cousin, Valentin Vacherot, who had celebrated the exact same way the day before. A wide grin spread across Rinderknech’s face as he joined his cousin in the semi-finals in Shanghai and set the family group chat ablaze back home.
The final weeks of the tennis season can often feel strained, particularly so this week in Shanghai as exhausted players have battled not just their weary bodies and minds but the brutal heat and humidity. But amid the general exhaustion, a wonderful story has broken through, one involving the 30-year-old journeyman Rinderknech and his younger cousin Vacherot, the history-making 26-year-old Monegasque, who started the week as an alternate in qualifying and ranked outside the world’s top 200.
Now, they will meet in Sunday’s final. Spurred on by a stated commitment to “follow Val”, Rinderknech backed up Vacherot’s stunning upset of world No 11 Holger Rune by defeating the US Open semi-finalist Felix Auger-Aliassime. Vacherot then beat Novak Djokovic in a straight sets in Saturday’s first semi-final – leaving the court by signing “allez Arthur” on a camera – before Rinderknech followed by knocking out Daniil Medvedev in three.
Of the two cousins, Vacherot’s run to the final has been the biggest surprise. After being sidelined for most of the second half of last season due to a right shoulder injury, Vacherot has spent the 2025 season entering Challenger events – other than his home tournament in Monaco, where he received a wildcard. With his ranking not high enough to guarantee a spot in Shanghai qualifying, Vacherot gambled on taking a trip to China. It paid off. Enough players dropped out before the deadline to allow Vacherot to enter qualifying as an alternate.
He has not looked back, winning eight matches and taking out five seeded players in a row in Alexander Bublik, Tomas Machac, Tallon Griekspoor, Rune and Djokovic, to become the second-lowest-ranked player to reach a semi-final in ATP Masters history. Vacherot, who is coached by his half-brother Benjamin Balleret, is also the first player representing Monaco to reach an ATP Tour final. The principality is home to many a top player, but has no history of producing them.
“I didn’t come as a qualifier, I came as an alternate. I wasn’t even sure I was going to play qualifying,” Vacherot said after his three-set win over Rune. The 26-year-old is now set to enter the world’s top 100 for the first time. “This is just unbelievable for me. I’m just so happy and living the dream.”
Djokovic knows Vacherot’s coach Balleret, himself a former player who reached 204 in the world rankings, from training and being based in Monaco. “Amazing story for him,” Djokovic said before their semi-final.
So, too, for the older cousin Rinderknech, whose big breakthrough comes after turning 30 but following months of strong form and a first-round win over Alexander Zverev at Wimbledon. Rinderknech also beat world No 3 Zverev in Shanghai and, after knocking out Auger-Aliassime in the quarter-finals, now has seven wins against top-20 opponents since June, as many as he had managed in his entire career to that point. Rinderknech will now reach a career-high of at least 37 thanks to a career-first Masters final.
But the magic of Rinderknech and Vacherot is that their stories are intertwined. The cousins overlapped while at college at Texas A&M University; they were teammates for two and a half years between 2016 and 2018. Now, after years of grinding away on tour, they have managed to produce their biggest results while the other has a front-row view.
“I followed my cousin,” Rinderknech said, pointing towards Vacherot. “He was going through the emotions on Thursday and I am trying to follow and battle and do the same as him. The whole family is following from home. We are in our own little world here. It has been incredible.”
