Paris Masters: Vacherot books spot in last 16, beating Rinderknech (again)

Monégasque wildcard Valentin Vacherot advanced to the last 16 of the Paris Masters by edging out French wildcard Arthur Rinderknech 6-7(9), 6-3, 6-4 at the Paris La Défense Arena on Wednesday.

This was a tense battle between the two cousins, which lasted almost 3 hours. It was played with an intensity and respectful atmosphere that led the players to play a very inconsistent match and resulted in a muted celebration by Vacherot.

“It was respect for us and for what we’ve been doing,” Vacherot said. He had the lead during most of each set and missed two set points in an unbelievable tie-break, won by Rinderknech at its third attempt.

Vacherot, ranked No. 40, will face the Englishman Cameron Norrie next. The Monégasque beat the Czech Jiří Lehečka, the No. 14 seed (6-1, 6-3), before his current victory and is continuing to write an unbelievable story since his win at the Shanghai Masters 1000 three weeks ago, defeating Arthur Rinderknech in final when he was world No. 204.

Paris Masters 1000, other second-round results (La Défense Arena, hard, EUR 6.128.940, most recent results first):

• Karen Khachanov vs. Joao Fonseca
• Corentin Moutet vs. Alexander Bublik
• Gabriel Diallo vs. Alex De Minaur
• Lorenzo Musetti vs. Lorenzo Sonego
• Zizou Bergs vs. Jannik Sinner

• Camilo Ugo Carabelli vs. Alexander Zverev
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs. Arthur Cazaux
• Daniil Medvedev (11) beat Grigor Dimitrov: W/O
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Alexandre Muller: wednesday
• Francisco Cerundolo vs. Miomir Kecmanovic: wednesday
• Daniel Altmaier beat Casper Ruud (8): 6-3, 7-5
• Taylor Fritz (4) beat Aleksandar Vukic (Q): 7-6 (4), 6-2
• Andrey Rublev (12) beat Learner Tien: 6-4, 6-4
• Cameron Norrie beat Carlos Alcaraz (1): 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
• Ben Shelton (5) beat Flavio Cobolli: 7-6 (4), 6-3