World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz and No. 2 Jannik Sinner have dominated the spotlight at major events in recent months. However, in a rare situation where both were absent, with Alcaraz withdrawing before the tournament and Sinner retiring early due to cramps, a huge opportunity opened up for the rest of the field. Seizing that chance, the unexpected duo from the Riviera have stepped into the limelight and will now fight for the biggest title of their careers.
It has to be said that Masters titles, once incredibly difficult to win, have become more accessible since the decline of the Big Four era. The introduction of the two-week format has also led to more surprising deep runs from lower-ranked players. Even with those changes taken into account, the current run from Arthur Rinderknech and Valentin Vacherot remains a true rarity, marking only the third time in history that two unseeded players will contest a Masters final. The previous instances came in Hamburg 1996 and Paris 2003.
For Arthur Rinderknech, what began as a deeply frustrating campaign at the Shanghai Masters, when his opening-round opponent Hamad Medjedovic took a medical timeout that disrupted his rhythm and caused him to drop the first set, has turned into the best tournament of his career. After surviving that first-round match through retirement, Rinderknech went on to record impressive wins over Alexander Zverev, Jiri Lehecka, Felix Auger-Aliassime, and most recently Daniil Medvedev in the semifinals.
Rinderknech most certainly would not have imagined himself playing in a Masters final at this stage, but he fully deserves a result like this, largely due to the steady improvement he has shown over the past few months. He has been highly competitive since the start of the grass swing, recording some of the best wins of his career and delivering strong performances against top players. Now, with his career-best run on the main tour coming in Shanghai, he is set to break into the top 30, an incredible turnaround considering he was close to falling out of the top 100 earlier this year.
French tennis has long been a steady producer of top-level talent, but for many years, many of those players have struggled to deliver in the biggest moments. Even stars like Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet never managed to capture a Masters title. That is why it would be a remarkable achievement for Rinderknech to add one to his trophy cabinet. He is the first Frenchman to reach a Masters final since Ugo Humbert lost to Alexander Zverev in Paris last year, and he will be aiming to become the first French champion at this level since Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Roger Federer in Canada in 2014.
In any other Masters event this year, Arthur Rinderknech would have grabbed all the headlines with his superb run to the final at the Shanghai Masters. However, in Shanghai this fortnight, he has been slightly overshadowed by another fairy-tale run from the underdog Valentin Vacherot, who arrived in the city without even having a guaranteed spot in the qualifying draw and only entered the qualifiers as an alternate.
The post-Covid era has seen plenty of fairy-tale runs across all categories of events, but few come close to what Vacherot has achieved in Shanghai over the past few days. Entering as a qualifier, he has defied the odds, defeating notable players such as Alexander Bublik, Tomas Machac, and Holger Rune. His biggest moment came in the semifinals when he toppled four-time Shanghai Masters champion Novak Djokovic, who was visibly struggling with an injury.
This is the kind of run that has the potential to completely transform a player’s career and life. Vacherot began the tournament ranked outside the top 200 and had won only one main-draw match on the main tour. Now, he is on the verge of breaking into the top 50 and is guaranteed to spend much more time in the spotlight in the coming weeks, carrying with him the confidence earned from some spectacular wins against top players.
The last and only time a player entered a Masters event with just one main-draw win at the ATP level in his career and went on to reach the final was Jerzy Janowicz in Paris 2012, a famous run that ultimately fell short as he lost to David Ferrer in the title match. Vacherot is also only the second player in this century ranked outside the top 200 to defeat three or more top-20 players in a single event. The previous player to achieve this was Tim van Rijthoven at ’s-Hertogenbosch in 2022, a run that culminated in a title.
Head-to-head: Arthur Rinderknech leads 1-0. This promises to be a highly emotional moment for both players. Having spent their formative years competing against each other and then spending significant time together at the same university in the United States, reaching the point where they are now battling for a Masters title is truly a surreal experience.
Valentin Vacherot may have faced bigger names and more intimidating opponents than Arthur Rinderknech in the earlier rounds, but none are playing at the high level that Rinderknech is showing at the moment. This feels like the Frenchman’s moment to claim the big prize and become the second player in 2025 to win their maiden tour-level title at the Masters, following in the footsteps of Jakub Mensik.