Arthur Rinderknech and Valentin Vacherot are living the 'undreamable dream'. Who will win the Shanghai final? | ATP Tour | Tennis
Match Preview
ATPTour.com previews the penultimate ATP Masters 1000 final of the season.
October 11, 2025
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Cousins Arthur Rinderknech and Valentin Vacherot will meet for the Shanghai title on Sunday. By Andrew Eichenholz
Arthur Rinderknech and Valentin Vacherot are family first and foremost. The cousins share a sport they've played together 'thousands of times', from junior days to college teammates at Texas A&M University, and beyond. But they never imagined what they'd do together on a tennis court on Sunday.
One day after upending former No. 1 players in the PIF ATP Rankings, Vacherot stunned Novak Djokovic and Rinderknech rallied past Daniil Medvedev, they'll meet for an ATP Masters 1000 title in the final of the Rolex Shanghai Masters.
"It's 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 yet distinct paths to this point. The Frenchman is just over three years older than his cousin from Monaco. They spent two seasons together in college before embarking on their professional journeys.
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, now up to No. 28 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, has proven a consistent threat against even the world's best players with his aggressive, big-serving game.
In Wimbledon's first round this year, the Gassin-born righty stunned Alexander Zverev, before upending 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.
Vacherot, on the other hand, held just one career ATP Tour win 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 Monegasque before his storybook event truly began. Vacherot hasn't 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. It's 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'd received from family and friends back home in Monaco.
"It was pretty hard to not have a few tears," Vacherot said, who also ousted 14th seed Alexander Bublik, 20th seed Tomas Machac, 27th seed Tallon Griekspoor, and 10th seed Holger Rune earlier in the tournament.
The Monegasque 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 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 don't 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."
