Rinderknech channels family fire into Shanghai semifinal
With his cousin’s semifinal looming, Arthur Rinderknech unleashed a barrage of aggressive returns and forehand winners to dismantle Felix Auger-Aliassime’s serve, claiming a straight-sets victory that vaults him into uncharted Masters 1000 territory amid a week of emotional highs.
Under the humid glow of Shanghai‘s night session, Arthur Rinderknech stepped onto the court carrying the momentum of two top-20 upsets, his flat baseline strikes finally syncing with the hard courts’ relentless pace. The 30-year-old Frenchman had entered the Shanghai Masters ranked outside the elite but ignited a run by outlasting Alexander Zverev‘s power in the third round and Jiri Lehecka‘s variety in the last 16. Now facing Felix Auger-Aliassime, whose serve had held firm through four matches with just one break conceded, Rinderknech sensed an opening to extend his dream week, the crowd’s murmurs building as he warmed up with deep crosscourt groundstrokes.
Breaching the Canadian’s serve wall
Rinderknech wasted no time asserting pressure, forcing Auger-Aliassime into errors at 3-3 in the first set when two forehand unforceds and a double fault handed him break point. He converted with a laser forehand pass down-the-line, then consolidated the advantage with steady inside-out forehands that kept the Canadian pinned back. The set closed 6-3 on his first set point, Rinderknech’s nine winners highlighting a near-flawless execution with only three errors, his returns probing the backhand to disrupt any rhythm.
In the second set, Auger-Aliassime fought back, earning three break points at 2-1 and 0-40 as Rinderknech‘s serve came under siege. The Frenchman responded with a mix of heavy topspin and an underspin slice to vary the tempo, clawing back from the brink to hold and maintain his edge. He struck 20 winners overall, claiming 85 percent of his first-serve points in a match that tilted decisively his way, improving to 1-2 in their head-to-head after 87 minutes.
“It is huge. First of all, I followed my cousin,” Rinderknech said. “He was going through the emotions on Thursday and I am trying to follow and battle and do the same as him. It has been incredible since the start of the week. The whole family is following from home. We are in our own little world here. It has been incredible and today was a good performance from myself and I am happy it was straight sets, so I am not too tired for tomorrow.”
Family nerves shape emotional run
Post-match, Rinderknech thrust his arms skyward, his eyes locking on cousin Valentin Vacherot in the stands, the Monegasque gearing up for a semifinal clash with Novak Djokovic the next day. Their parallel paths in the draw, detailed in the pair’s story here, turned the tournament into a shared saga of support and stress, with Rinderknech admitting the toll of watching Vacherot’s quarterfinal the previous evening. He revealed how that anxiety fueled his focus, transforming sidelined tension into on-court calm.
“I was stressing so much yesterday during his whole match,” he added. “I am not used to watching guys play on court and I was wanting him to win so much. I was so stressed but I didn’t want to show anything. I didn’t want to stress him. Today was a lot more calm for me on court.” This familial bond amplified the stakes, as Rinderknech’s three straight top-20 victories—each more improbable than the last—echoed a season where hard-court frustrations had tested his resolve, only for Shanghai’s conditions to unlock his aggressive one–two punch of serve and forehand.
Rise echoes French legacy in Shanghai
As the third Frenchman to reach the Shanghai semifinals, joining Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2013 and 2015 plus Gilles Simon in 2014 and 2016, Rinderknech’s surge carries historical resonance on these fast hard courts. His live ranking climbs 17 spots to No. 37, setting up a career high on Monday, a reward for adapting his game with deeper returns and varied depths that neutralized Auger-Aliassime’s fluid movement. Next up in the last four comes Alex de Minaur or Daniil Medvedev, opponents who will demand further tweaks to his baseline patterns amid the draw’s thinning field.
For the Canadian, the defeat leaves him 10th in the PIF ATP Live Race to Turin, 530 points behind eighth-placed Lorenzo Musetti and the final qualification spot for the Nitto ATP Finals. Rinderknech’s breakthrough, however, signals a player embracing the mental grind of elite tennis, his straight-sets authority belying the season’s earlier shadows and positioning him to chase deeper glory with family cheering from the shadows.
