Vacherot to face cousin Rinderknech in Paris Masters second round

Valentin Vacherot advanced to the second round of the Paris Masters on Tuesday with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over 14th seed Jiri Lehecka at the La Défense Arena and will meet his cousin Arthur Rinderknech on Wednesday in a rematch of the Shanghai Masters final two weeks ago. Rinderknech reached the same round on Monday by edging Fabian Marozsan 7-6, 7-6.

Vacherot, the 26-year-old from Monaco, needed just 54 minutes to defeat Lehecka, producing sharply timed groundstrokes, steady serving and limited unforced errors. The win continued the momentum from his surprise run in Shanghai, where he came through qualifying to lift the Masters title and became the lowest-ranked Masters champion in history at 204th in the world before rising into the top 40.

Both players are competing in Paris as wildcards after their runs in China. Rinderknech, who also enjoyed a breakthrough in Shanghai by reaching his first Masters final, required two tight tiebreaks to dispatch Marozsan and said he preferred playing his second-round match after his cousin rather than before, citing fatigue from the Shanghai schedule. "This time I am the first one to play and Vacherot has to follow suit. I prefer it this way,...