SHANGHAI (AP) — Valentin Vacherot beat Arthur Rinderknech 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 on Sunday to win the Shanghai Masters for the first title of his career after a stunning run from the qualifying rounds.
The 204th-ranked Vacherot, an unheralded 26-year-old, was the lowest-ranked tournament winner in ATP Masters 1000 history — and the first from the tiny Principality of Monaco.
“Just crying, it’s just isn’t real what just happened. I’ve no idea what’s happening right now,” Vacherot said moments after victory. “I think there are two winners today and just one family that won. I think for the sport of tennis this story’s just unreal.”
It was quite a performance, too.
He stunned 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic in the semifinals to set up a final against the 30-year-old Rinderknech, who had downed four-time major finalist Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 U.S. Open champion, in a remarkable semifinal of his own.
Before toppling Djokovic — owner of 100 career titles and among the greatest men’s players ever — Vacherot also beat tenth-seeded Holger Rune in the quarterfinals.
“It’s only my fourth season on the tour. I think of all the work I’ve done,” Vacherot said. “To win today is completely crazy, I just can’t believe it.”
He produced a serving masterclass in the third set, with three straight love holds and 15 consecutive points before finally losing a point in the eighth game with an unforced error.
Serving to stay in the match at 15-40 down, Rinderknech saved one match point but Vacherot wrong-footed him with yet another blistering forehand winner down the line to clinch victory.
He held his face in his hands in disbelief before walking to the net to hug his cousin and then rushing to his team box to share a long hug with coach Benjamin Balleret, who is his half-brother and is a former tennis player from Monaco.
Balleret’s career highlight was a defeat to tennis great Roger Federer in the early rounds of the Monte Carlo Masters in 2006.
Nineteen years later, Federer was in the Shanghai crowd watching as Rinderknech clinched the first set with an ace.
Balleret and Federer shook hands before Vacherot grabbed a red-and-white Monaco flag and displayed it on court. Then he wrote “Grandma and Grandpa would be proud” on a courtside camera.
“I tried to put it to one side that it’s my cousin, the guy that I’ve been growing up with,” Vacherot said. “In the first set I didn’t bring my ‘A’ game and Arthur was playing better than me.”
Monaco’s biggest sporting star is Fomula 1 driver Charles Leclerc, who has won eight races among his 48 podiums.
Vacherot will shoot up the rankings and inside the Top 50 on Monday.
He secured an early break in the decider and then missed four break-point chances in the fifth game as Rinderknech got a reprieve. The Frenchman immediately took a three-minute medical timeout for massage treatment on his back and then his left shoulder.
But there was nothing he could do to stop his cousin’s momentum.
Rinderknech appeared troubled by heavy cramps and — after giving his runner-up speech — had to sit down as his cousin addressed the crowd.
They never played each other before on the professional tour, with Rinderknech winning their only meeting at a Futures tournament in 2018. ___
AP tennis:
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