Tennis star collapses with joy after booking his place to play his COUSIN - ranked 204th in the world - in fairytale Masters final... as bad loser Daniil Medvedev screams at the umpire instead of shaking his rival's hand

French tennis star Arthur Rinderknech will play his first Masters final on Sunday afternoon against his cousin, Monegasque player Valentin Vacherot in a tennis fairytale few could have believed possible at the start of the tournament. 

Rinderknech, ranked 54th in the ATP standings, pulled off wins against top-20 players including Felix Auger-Aliassime, Jiri Lehecka, and world No 3 Alexander Zverev before facing off the hot-tempered former US Open champion Daniil Medvedev on Saturday. 

But Vacherot's journey to his potential debut Masters title is even more unlikely, with the 26-year-old ranked in the 200s. 

Vacherot, who played college tennis at Texas A&M like his cousin, was drafted into the competition as an alternate at the very last minute, following the withdrawal of Luca Nardi. 

He went on to beat Nicholas Basavareddy and Liam Draxl in qualifying, before scything through seeded players including Tomas Mahac, Alexander Bublik, and Holger Rune. 

The player then pulled off an unthinkable victory against 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic - although the Serbian serial champion was battling through the contest with injury. 

Rinderknech has been a presence in Vacherot's box for his matches in the later stage of the tournament - alongside another of his cousins, Vacherot's half-brother and coach Benjamin Balleret - and Vacherot opted to repay the favour once he had completed his recovery after beating Djokovic. 

In the second semi-final of the day, Medvedev won the first set handily before Rinderknech struck early-on in the second. 

The Frenchman continued to cling onto the tie despite obvious fatigue as Medvedev tied himself into knots before serving a double fault to hand Rinderknech his first ATP 1000 final spot. 

Rinderknech collapse to the ground in disbelief after the score was announced, and in heartwarming scenes, Vacherot later came down from the player box to hug his cousin on the court. 

Medvedev meanwhile opted not to wait at the net to shake Rinderknech's hand as he celebrated, which is custom. 

Instead, the Russian star charged to umpire Mohammed Lahyani - who had been the focus of his ire for a number of patches during the match - and started berating him over Rinderknech's conduct. 

'He was using towel every f***ing point at this side,' Medvedev was heard saying, in an apparent reference to Rinderknech's timekeeping. 

While a lot of the row was inaudible, Medvedev was also heard saying, 'Why? Explain yourself', as Rinderknech made his way over to the pair. 

Medvedev then did shake his opponent's hand, before both of them shook Lahyani's. 

'In the best dreams, we couldn't have dreamt about this,' Rinderknech said in his on-court interview. 

'I can't even say it's a dream. I don't think even one person in our family dreamt about this. It wasn't a dream. 

'It's just a dream that came out of nowhere and we started believing it maybe in the quarters. I was like "who knows? It's very hard. Maybe a guy or two can pull out. Whatever can happen".

'Now we are here. We fought so many matches. Somehow, we are both guys standing at the end. Just incredible. 

I couldn't finish a point with Daniil and I was pretty much just dead after a set,' Rinderknech added on his mammoth contest.  

'I was like, you know what, maybe I'm going to lose, but I'm going to fight like crazy, so I'm going to make him tired for tomorrow and at least I'm going to help Val to try to start the match a little bit ahead physically, at least.'