Agency :
Greek fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas staved off a spectacular fightback from US Open runner-up Alexander Zverev for a 6-3 6-3 4-6 4-6 6-3 victory in a scintillating French Open clash on Friday and book a maiden Grand Slam final spot.
Tsitsipas, 22, has long been marked out as a future Grand Slam champion and has already added the ATP Finals and a Masters 1000 trophy to his cabinet.
But he drew a blank all three times he reached the last-four stage at a major before Friday’s semi-final.
He arrived for the contest with a 5-2 head-to-head record against sixth seed Zverev and a Tour-leading win tally in 2021 but had to toil hard and dig himself out of trouble on numerous occasions to finally taste victory after three hours and 37 minutes.
The win over the 24-year-old German made Tsitsipas the first Greek to reach the final of a Grand Slam.
“All I can think of is my roots,” an emotional Tsitsipas, trying hard to hold back tears, said on a sun-bathed Philippe Chatrier court.
“I come from a really small place outside of Athens. My dream was to play here and I would never have thought I would achieve it …”
Tsitsipas got an early break in the opening set, aided by two double faults from Zverev, and remained solid against the German’s heavy groundstrokes to hold onto his narrow advantage.
Zverev continued to be aggressive and built a 3-0 lead at the start of the second set but Tsitsipas showed exemplary athleticism and staunch defence to win the next six games, leaving a bewildered Zverev staring at his player’s box.
The German, however, regrouped, loosened up and added more power to his shots to pick up early breaks in the third and fourth sets which proved enough for him to level the match at two sets apiece.
With the match slipping away from his grip, Tsitsipas started getting agitated and kept muttering to himself in Greek in the fourth set but could not find a way back.
