Vacherot, Rinderknech to Face Off in Shanghai Masters Final

SHANGHAI – Former Texas A&M All-America tennis players and cousins Arthur Rinderknech and Valentin Vacherot face off in the final of the Rolex Shanghai Masters title early Sunday morning.

Vacherot has made history as the lowest-ranked ATP Masters 1000 finalist at No. 204. His journey to the final started as a qualifying alternate, not even guaranteed of playing in the tournamento. Two qualifying wins and five main draw wins later Vacherot face ATP No. 5 and 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic in the semifinals. The Monaco native was unfazed by his opponent, dominating the match to win in straight-sets, 6-3, 6-4.

"I'm not realizing [what's happened], so I can't give any words on it," Vacherot told ATPTour.com. "This is just crazy. First of all, to just be on the other side of the court [from Novak] was an unbelievable experience. I think I've got so much to learn from this match, from him. Even for myself, I've got a lot to keep.

Rinderknech reached an ATP Masters 1000 final for the first time after a comeback victory over 16-seeded Daniil Medvedev, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. The is the Frenchman's fourth-straight top-20 win in this tournament run, topping No. 3 Alexander Zverev in the round of 32, No. 19 Jiri Lehecka in the round of 16, No. 13 Felix Auger-Aliassime in the quarterfinals and now Medvedev.

"In the best dreams, we couldn't have dreamt about this, so I can't even say it's a dream, because I don't think even one person in our family dreamt about it," Rinderknech told ATPTour.com. "So, it wasn't a dream, it's just a dream that came out of nowhere. 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 [two] guys standing at the end, so it's just incredible."

The final between the two Aggies is slated for 3:30 a.m. Sunday morning on Tennis TV.

FOLLOW THE AGGIES

Visit 12thman.com for more information on Texas A&M men's tennis. Fans can keep up to date with the A&M men's tennis team on Facebook, Instagram/Threads and X by following @AggieMTEN.

Click here to read article