ranked ATP Masters winner after defeating his cousin Rinderknech in Shanghai

Valentin Vacherot has become the lowest-ranked tournament winner in ATP Masters 1000 history after the 204th ranked men's player won the Shanghai Masters.

He beat his cousin Arthur Rinderknech 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 on Sunday local time to claim the first title of his career after a stunning run from the qualifying rounds.

Vacherot, the unheralded 26-year-old, is also the first winner of an ATP Masters tournament from the tiny Principality of Monaco.

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 US Open champion, in a remarkable semifinal of his own.

Vacherot 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 loss 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.

Vacherot 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.

They never played each other before on the professional tour, with Rinderknech winning their only meeting at a Futures tournament in 2018.

Click here to read article