Valentin Vacherot versus Arthur Rinderknech could hardly have made for a more unlikely Shanghai Masters 1000 final on Sunday. It was the first time that both finalists of a Masters had been unseeded, and Vacherot became history’s lowest ranked champion of such a tournament. To make it even more unlikely, they are cousins.
The pair’s family and college team relationships perhaps shows in their service motions: both start more face-on to the baseline than most pros, before bringing their back foot forward just before contact with the ball (a service motion known as the pinpoint serve).
With the crowd relatively unfamiliar with both, having treated Novak Djokovic like a home player in previous rounds, the first few games didn’t have the atmosphere of a final. The crowd were, though, impressed with the first point. Rinderknech played a well-measured inside out forehand drop shot; Vacherot bellied his tall frame, sprinted to the ball and played a solid approach before finishing with a perfect stop volley. A few points later, he finished the game with a tight crosscourt forehand winner.
But in his next service game, Vacherot looked tight on two forehand unforced errors, before a missed overhead gave away the break. Perhaps the pressure of an extremely unlikely situation was showing. On the other side of the net, the only slightly-likelier finalist Rinderknech (ranked 42 before the tournament) was looking composed, playing the percentages and earning an early break.
Vacherot continued looking the nervier, at 2-4 misjudging a clever short slice down the line from Rinderknech, and then double faulting the next point. Rinderknech was staying calm, hitting two good passing shots in one point. But Vacherot has a mighty weapon: his serve. He steps up to the line looking taller than the ATP’s stated 6’4”, thanks partly to his ’80s-style short shorts. It was that shot that got him out of trouble and kept it to just one break.
The following game, as things were getting tense, both players brought out the grunting, something of a plague across the men’s and women’s tours. At 40-30, Rinderkneck again showed his composure, mixing things up with a first body serve. He shouted a deliberate “Come on!” to celebrate winning the game – the cousins were becoming less friendly.
Rinderkneck served out the set with an ace, and in his first service game in the second set, the delivery got even better. Vacherot had to cover both sides on the ad side thanks to Rinderknech’s ability to hit every angle, which left space for two brilliant wide serves. Closer to a prize that no pundit in the world would have predicted pre-trounament, his nerves still weren’t obvious. Vacherot’s weakest shot might be his return; when he did get a good chance on a subpar serve, he was too aggressive down the line and swung wildly out.
After a long tournament, Rinderknech’s fatigue was perhaps showing as he went to his chair at 2-2, despite it not being a changeover, to get a sip of Coke. It might not have been the wisest decision – although he was likely banking on getting the match done in straight sets, it would go to three, and he might have experienced a sugar crash. By this point in the second, he was largely saving his energy for his service games, playing a couple of excellent points to get to 3-3. On return, he seemed less focused, making far more errors and not handling the pace of Vacherot’s serve the way Djokovic had largely managed. At 3-3, 30-30, Vacherot kept his cool on his second serve, but had an excellent chance to get to break point, missing a volley close to the net. The next point, he looked tired with another unforced error.
His fatigue showed again at 3-4 – or perhaps it was eventual nerves – with an unexpected decision to play a drop shot, with that shot not featuring much since the first game. He missed it into the net.
Vacherot had looked frustrated with the lack of chances to break earlier in the match, but now he was getting more. On his second break point of the game, he played a fantastic backhand winner down the line, only ruined by a tactical grunt as he raised the volume beyond any logical reason of biomechanics.
As the noises got more ridiculous the following game, the crowd laughed mid-rally. Vacherot, though, looked deadly serious as he prepared to serve out the set, which he managed thanks to another poorly measured drop shot by Rinderknech.
Despite a bathroom break approaching 10 minutes (much of which Vacherot was also off court for), Rinderknech did not look very refreshed. He played one of his poorest games of the match and got broken at the start of the deciding set, with Vacherot locked in. And whether it was nerves or fatigue or a combination, Rinderknech’s poor drop shots kept coming. Another miss on the forehand could have contributed to a second break, along with an excellent forehand by Vacherot. Rinderknech regained his composure, but on that changeover he needed physio treatment on his back. The players weren’t used to such an intense tournament: neither had reached a Masters final before and neither had won an ATP title.
Rinderknech got into a tricky position, serving at 3-5, 0-30, but then played an immaculate half volley winner off a deep return from Vacherot . The latter dealt with his nerves in about as good a way as any: by laughing. It was quite a ridiculous shot, almost as ridiculous as the situation. Immediately after the laugh, Vacherot was back to focused mode, and a couple of points later won the match with an excellent passing shot. He was a man on a mission – world no. 204 to world no. 40.
Top image from ATP Tour.