Valentin Vacherot continues dream run with maiden Masters 1000 title in Shanghai

Vacherot ended his Shanghai fairytale run with the trophy, his maiden at ATP Tour level, as he defeated Rinderknech  4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the showpiece match.

Besides holding his nerve to see off his cousin, Vacherot also claimed the upset of the year as he defeated 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic in straight sets in the semifinal.

His other scalps included 14th seed Alexander Bublik and 10th Holger Rune while he became the first man from Monaco to reach the quarter-final of an ATP Masters 1000 event and he went two better to become the first Monagasque to win a top-level title.

Rinderknech, who was looking to become the first Frenchman since 2014 to win a Masters title, beat former world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev in the semi-final, 14th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in the quarter-final and third seed Alexander Zverev in the third round.

It was a productive time for the cousins in Shanghai.

Vacherot - whose previous career high was No. 117 - will go home with the maximum points as he didn't compete in Shanghai 12 months ago. In fact, he will go with more than the usual maximum as he started his campaign in the qualifiers.

Players earn 1,000 ranking points for winning ATP Masters 1000 events, but they also drop points from the corresponding period of the previous year as the ATP uses a rolling 52-week cumulative system.

But as mentioned, Vacherot didn't play last year so he picks up 1,000 points plus 20 for his two wins in the qualifiers.

His 1,200 points will see him surge to No. 40 when the ATP Rankings are updated after the tournament.

Rinderknech, who was at No. 54 before a ball was hit, was also looking for his first title, but has to settle for an ATP Masters 1000 runners-up trophy.

The 30-year-old picked up 620 points for his efforts will see jump 26 places to a new career high of No. 28.

Vacherot's career earnings were $594,077 before the Shanghai Masters, but he has received a first-prize cheque of $1,124,380.

His cousin Rinderknech will go home with $597,890, pushing his career earnings to just over $5.6m.

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