Alex de Minaur is rueing another missed opportunity against a top opponent, amid a stunning run by a pair of cousins who have re-written the tennis history books. De Minaur has risen to World No.7 on the back of some stellar form in recent weeks, but lost in the quarter-finals at the Shanghai Masters on Friday night.
The Aussie star went down 6-4 6-4 to Daniil Medvedev – the eighth time in 12 meetings he’s lost to the resurgent Russian. Medvedev almost looked out on his feet as he struggled with cramp against Learner Tien in the fourth round, but against de Minaur he again resembled the man who once made it to World No.1.
Alex de Minaur’s (L) run was ended in the quarter-finals, while Valentin Vacherot (R) and his cousin Arthur Rinderknech made some extraordinary history. Image: Getty
It was heartbreak again for de Minaur as he looked to score the 300th tour-level win of his career. The Aussie gave himself six break-point chances, only to be repelled on each occasion by the 29-year-old ‘Octopus’.
“I was super tired. I knew against Alex, like Learner, we were going to get a lot of long points,” Medvedev said afterwards. “We had a couple in the that first set (of 29 strokes), and I knew it was going to be a long day.
“But I’m happy about the way I played. I was really clutch in important moments, hitting the ball great and putting him under pressure many times. I’m really happy with this level.”
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For de Minaur it was another story of what might have been in Masters events. He’s only made one Masters final in his career and always seems to come unstuck against elite opponents. Last week at the China Open he made the semi-finals, only to lose to Jannik Sinner for the 11th time in 11 meetings.
Little-known cousins make tennis history in Shanghai
Even more frustrating for de Minaur was that he would have have had the chance to face a lowly-ranked opponent in the semis. Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech caused a huge boilover against 12th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, winning 6-3 6-4 to make the final four.
The World No.54 joined his even more unheralded cousin Valentin Vacherot in the semis, after the World No.204 from Monaco had earlier shocked Danish 10th seed Holger Rune. The situation took another staggering twist on Saturday night when the cousins took down Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev to make the final against each other.
Arthur Rinderknech (L) and Valentin Vacherot (R) are both into the Shanghai semi-finals. Image: Getty
Vacherot earned the biggest win of his career by downing Djokovic 6-3 6-4 to becoming the lowest-ranked finalist in the 35-year-year history of the Masters 1000 events. A couple of hours later, Vacherot walked back onto the court and hugged Rinderknech to help celebrate his cousin’s 4-6 6-2 6-4 victory over Medvedev.
Sunday’s final will be the first time the cousins have played each other on the ATP circuit. “In the best dreams, we couldn’t have dreamt about this, so I can’t even say it’s a dream, because I don’t think even one person in our family dreamt about it,” the 54th-ranked Rinderknech said. “Now we are here, we fought through so many matches and somehow we are the guys standing at the end, so it’s just incredible.”
The cousins’ march into the final marks the first time in the 16-year history of the Shanghai Masters that two players from outside the top-50 have made the title match. Tennis fans and commentators have been blown away by the remarkable run from the little-known cousins.
with AAP