Arthur Rinderknech defeats Felix Auger-Aliassime to reach Shanghai SFs

Match Report

Rinderknech continues dream run, defeats Auger-Aliassime to reach Shanghai SFs

Frenchman has earned three consecutive Top 20 wins

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Arthur Rinderknech defeats Felix Auger-Aliassime to reach the semi-finals in Shanghai. By Sam Jacot

Arthur Rinderknech earned the biggest win of his career on Friday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, where he moved past Felix Auger-Aliassime to reach his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final.

Rinderknech defeated World No. 3 Alexander Zverev and World No. 19 Jiri Lehecka to advance to his maiden Masters 1000 quarter-final but ensured his run would not end against World No. 13 Auger-Aliassime. The Frenchman produced a high-quality display of aggressive striking and closed out the match with authority, sealing a dominant 6-3, 6-4 victory on his second match point after 87 minutes.

Following his victory, Rinderknech raised his arms aloft and looked toward his cousin Valentin Vacherot, who is in semi-final action against Novak Djokovic on Saturday. Read more about the pair’s story here.

"It is huge. First of all, I followed my cousin," Rinderknech said, referencing qualifier Vacherot, who is set to break the Top 100 after becoming the first Monegasque player to reach a tour-level semi-final. "He was going through the emotions on Thursday and I am trying to follow and battle and do the same as him. It has been incredible since the start of the tournament.

"The whole family is following from home. We are in our own little world here. It has been incredible and today was a good performance from myself and I am happy it was straight sets, so I am not too tired for tomorrow."

Rinderknech is up 17 spots to No. 37 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings and is set to rise to a career-high on Monday. The 30-year-old, who has earned three consecutive Top 20 wins, is the third Frenchman to reach the semi-finals in Shanghai, joining Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (2013, ’15) and Gilles Simon (’14, 16). Rinderknech will next meet Alex de Minaur or Daniil Medvedev in the last four.

Auger-Aliassime had lost his serve just once all tournament before he met with Rinderknech, but was broken twice against the Frenchman. The Canadian gave Rinderknech an opening on his serve in the first set when he struck two unforced errors off the forehand and hit a double fault. The 30-year-old took his chance with a forehand pass to break and finished off a clean first set, in which he hit nine winners to just three unforced errors, on his first set point.

The 30-year-old continued to play front-foot tennis in the second set and battled hard on serve, crucially saving three break points at 2-1, 0/40 to maintain his break advantage. He struck 20 winners in the match and won 85 per cent of his first-serve points, according to Infosys ATP Stats, to improve to 1-2 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series against Auger-Aliassime.

Rinderknech is delighted to have joined his cousin Vacherot in the last four and opened up after the match on the week they are having.

"I was stressing so much yesterday during his whole match," said Rinderknech, who watched Vacherot's three-set win against Holger Rune courtside. "I am not used to watching guys play on court and I wanted him to win so much. I was so stressed but I didn't want to show anything. I didn't want to stress him. Today was a lot calmer for me on court."

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