It’s a family affair for two players at the Shanghai Masters, as cousins Arthur Rinderknech and Valentin Vacherot are both through to the quarter-finals. World No. 204 Vacherot has already made history this fortnight, becoming the first Monegasque player to make it this far at a Masters 1000 tournament.
His cousin, Arthur Rinderknech, caused a huge upset in the third round when he took out third seed Alexander Zverev. And the French star has now joined Vacherot in the last eight, beating Jiri Lehecka on Wednesday. Rinderknech was delighted to talk about their success, revealing that a third cousin was also on site in Shanghai.
Rinderknech and Vacherot might sit almost 150 spots apart in the rankings and represent different countries, but the cousins are very close, having attended university together in America. Now, they’ve both reached a huge milestone in Shanghai, both making it into a maiden Masters 1000 quarter-final.
After beating No. 15 seed Jiri Lehecka on Wednesday, Rinderknech explained: “Yeah we spent three years almost together at Texas A&M so we had so much time together, we’re really close.
“We’re actually not two cousins but three cousins this week because his brother, my cousin also, is his coach, so we are all three together. My coach is not here this week, unfortunately, but we are working from home and my cousin, Benjamin, he’s Valentin’s brother, he’s in the box with me, helping me out, cheering me on a little bit.”
“So it’s always great to have some family and I don’t know, I wonder if it ever happened, to have two cousins in the same quarter-finals of a Masters 1000, it would be interesting to know.”
Rinderknech was delighted to back up his big win over Zverev, whom he also beat at Wimbledon this summer, to reach his biggest quarter-final.
“I played a few Masters 1000s, it’s not like it’s my first Masters. Of course it’s a big tournament, I think I was already three times in the round of 16 in a Masters 1000, first time in the quarters now,” he said.
“I beat Zverev last round, so it’s a big seed, sometimes it opens up a little bit the draw but it doesn’t really make much interest if you don’t win the following one or if you don’t use it the best you can. Beating the best guy is good, but it gives you the same amount of points or the same prize money, so doesn’t really matter if you don’t beat the other guys.
“Today we know how good is the ATP circuit and anybody can beat anybody. Someone 100 ATP or someone 200 ATP, like my cousin, Valentin.
“At the beginning of the tournament, he’s 200 ATP and he’s right now in the quarter-final, beat three guys in the top 30 I think. So it doesn’t really, I wouldn’t say, make sense, but anybody can beat anybody so you need to just bring your A game every day.”
Rinderknech and Vacherot have certainly brought their A-games to Shanghai. World No. 204 Vacherot came through qualifying to reach the main draw and has now won six matches in a row.
The 26-year-old caused a big upset when he took out No. 13 seed Alexander Bublik in the second round. Vacherot then had a 6-0 3-1 lead over 20th seed Tomas Machac when Machac was forced to retire from their third-round match.
In the round of 16, the qualifier came from behind to beat No. 27 seed Tallon Griekspoor, the man who advanced when Jannik Sinner retired in the third set of their match on Sunday.
Rinderknech and Vacherot are on opposite halves of the draw, so they could only meet in the championship match in Shanghai, but Benjamin Vacherot will no doubt be glad that he doesn’t have to pick sides anytime soon.