ATP Tour

Cousins Rinderknech & Vacherot living 'undreamable dream': Who will win Shanghai final?

Arthur Rinderknech and Valentin Vacherot are family, first and foremost. The cousins just happen to share a sport they have played together “thousands of times”, from when they were juniors to teammates in college at Texas A&M University, and plenty since then. But never did they imagine what they will do together on a tennis court Sunday.

One day after they each upset a former No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings — Vacherot stunned 100-time tour-level titlist Novak Djokovic and Rinderknech rallied past Daniil Medvedev — they will meet for an ATP Masters 1000 title in the final of the Rolex Shanghai Masters.

“[It is] the dream undreamable. Is that okay? It was undreamable,” Rinderknech said. “Even in the biggest dream we couldn't have dreamt about this, so it's a dream that couldn't even exist at the beginning.

“I don't even know where it comes from, how it happened. I guess we must have done some good things to the people around us to deserve to experience something like this, because it's incredible.”

Rinderknech and Vacherot have followed similar, but different paths to this point. The Frenchman, Rinderknech, is just more than three years older than his cousin, Vacherot of Monaco. But they spent two seasons together in college before later beginning their professional journeys.

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Rinderknech reached No. 42 in the PIF ATP Rankings in 2022, the same year he made his only previous ATP Tour final in Adelaide. The 30-year-old, up to No. 28 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, has proven a consistent threat against even the world’s best players behind his aggressive, big-serving game.

In the first round of Wimbledon this year, the Gassin-born righty stunned Alexander Zverev, before upsetting the German again in Shanghai. He arrived at the Chinese ATP Masters 1000 event with 20 tour-level match victories this season and is now the ninth French player to reach a Masters 1000 final.

On the other hand, Vacherot held just one career ATP Tour win — which came earlier this year — entering the tournament, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. In the second round of qualifying, he was down a set against Liam Draxl and they were level at 5/5 in the second-set tie-break.

The Canadian was two points from knocking out the Monagesque before his storybook event truly began. Vacherot has not looked back since battling through that encounter and became the first player representing Monaco to make an ATP Tour singles quarter-final, semi-final and final.

His coach and half-brother, Benjamin Balleret, reached a career-high World No. 204 and perhaps it is fitting that Vacherot is making his mark in Shanghai as the World No. 204. ‘Val’ is now No. 58 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings thanks to his dream run and can climb to No. 40 by lifting the trophy.

“It’s an achievement. I would say it's a fairytale,” Balleret said. “He makes history for him, for Monaco. He's the first player from Monaco in the Top 100 already, of course, being in the semi-finals, in the final.

“Actually, I have no words. I don't know what to say about it… It’s not even unexpected. It’s kind of impossible. And he's doing it. Val is just unbelievable this week.”

When Vacherot returned to his locker Saturday after earning a stunning triumph against four-time Shanghai champion Djokovic, he turned on his phone and saw all the messages he had received from family and friends back home in Monaco.

“It was pretty hard to not have a few tears,” said Vacherot, who also ousted 14th seed Alexander Bublik, 20th seed Tomas Machac, 27th seed Tallon Griekspoor and 10th seed Holger Rune earlier in the tournament.

A family affair🥰

But with a battle on the court to come, we dive into their shot qualities during the tournament so far📊#TennisInsights | @atptour | @SH_RolexMasters pic.twitter.com/IMFozUvu0H

— Tennis Insights (@tennis_insights) October 11, 2025

The Monagesque has changed his life in one tournament, and on Sunday he could become the lowest-ranked Masters 1000 champion in series history (since 1990).

There was plenty to do after looking at those messages, from media to recovery. But most importantly, Vacherot had his eyes on his cousin’s match against Medvedev. After Rinderknech clawed past the former World No. 1 to level their Lexus ATP Head2Head series at 1-1, Vacherot returned to the court to share an unforgettable hug with Rinderknech.

“I wanted to comfort him. I was getting recovery, treatment and all. I just didn’t want him to see me all of a sudden because he would know if I was there, it was getting special. I was hiding,” Vacherot said. “But my heart was beating even faster than during my match. It was pretty crazy.”

Nobody would have predicted a Rinderknech-Vacherot final in Shanghai, but the cousins do not seem to mind.

“We deserve it. If we’re here, we deserve it,” Vacherot said. “To be honest right now I don’t even want to think about it. I just want to enjoy the moment, that we’re playing each other.”

The only time they played as professionals was in 2018 at an ITF World Tennis Tour event in France. Rinderknech triumphed on that occasion in straight sets.

On Sunday, the scene will be quite different. On one of the biggest stages in tennis, two cousins will clash for ATP Masters 1000 glory.

“Tomorrow there will be two winners anyway,” Rinderknech said. “There's going to be a match, of course. But today, we won everything. We couldn't win any more.”