The Shanghai Masters will witness one of the most astounding climaxes to any tournament as two cousins, Valentin Vacherot and Arthur Rinderknech, extended their shock breakthrough runs with monumental wins to face each other in the final.
Vacherot continued his fairytale by toppling an 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 No 204 maintained his composure as Djokovic appeared to struggle with his left gluteal muscle from early in the first set.
Vacherot’s tournament has been an incredible spectacle by itself, but it has been 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 No 54, put together the best result of his career. The Frenchman edged past the former world No 1 Daniil Medvedev 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the second semi-final on Saturday.
As Rinderknech closed out his victory, Vacherot walked on to the court holding his head in disbelief before embracing his cousin.
“I can’t even say it’s a dream because I don’t think even one person in our family dreamed about it,” Rinderknech said. “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 guys standing at the end. It’s just incredible.”
The second-lowest direct entrant into the qualifying draw, Vacherot has put together one of the most surprising successes at a big tournament, winning eight matches over the past two weeks. That has included victories over the No 14 seed, Alexander Bublik, and Holger Rune, the 10th seed, alongside this giantkilling win over Djokovic, the fourth seed.
“This is just crazy,” Vacherot said on court. “It was an hour and 40 minutes of pure joy, even though not many people wanted me to keep going. He’s really appreciated here. I got a bit lost in all his titles when they were announcing him, but it was an unreal experience.”
While Vacherot’s career-high ranking sits at No 110, the second and third lowest-ranked Masters 1000 semi-finalists, No 191 Andrei Pavel and No 152 Borna Coric, were former top 20 players who had dropped down the rankings. Nothing like this has happened at a Masters 1000 event on the ATP tour.
The cousins, who played college tennis in the US for the Texas A&M Aggies, have been encouraging each other in China. After closing out the victory, Vacherot signed the a TV camera lens: “Aggies on top! Allez, Arthur!”
Vacherot’s joy contrasted sharply with Djokovic’s misery as the 38-year-old continued to battle his own body. This had already been a challenging week for the Serb, who had suffered badly in the suffocating heat and humidity during the opening rounds, vomiting several times on court.
It appeared he had recovered from those early difficulties, but it became clear early on that he was struggling. Djokovic took a medical time out at 3-4 in the first set and, despite the crowd urging him on, he was unable to move properly.
Facing an injured player can still be challenging, particularly when that opponent is Djokovic, and Vacherot held his nerve in a protracted final game. He looked apologetic as he shook Djokovic’s hands, but the Serb admirably offered him encouragement during their embrace: “You deserve it. You deserve it, man. You played unbelievable,” he said.
Djokovic had been attempting to become the oldest Masters 1000 champion, he had already become the oldest quarter-finalist at this level. He has shown this year 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 nobody at his age has achieved the milestones he continues to reach. The countless physical problems Djokovic has struggled with between his positive performances this year have further underlined the difficulty of continuing to compete at the highest level.
In some ways, Djokovic may reflect even more bitterly on this result than some of his recent grand slam losses. While he has been outplayed by Alcaraz and Sinner in the past three major tournaments, things finally seemed to line up in his favour this week after Alcaraz withdrew because of the ankle injury he sustained during his Tokyo title run and then Sinner retired from his third-round match against Tallon Griekspoor due to the punishing conditions.
Djokovic has recognised Alcaraz and Sinner are levels above him at the moment, but if he continues to put himself in good positions he could give himself a few more opportunities to achieve great things. This week represented 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 have an all-American final as Jessica Pegula exacted revenge for her recent US Open semi-final loss to Aryna Sabalenka, narrowly beating the world No 1 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(2). Pegula, the sixth seed, will face the third seed, Coco Gauff, after the 21-year-old outplayed Jasmine Paolini, winning 6-4, 6-3.
