PARIS (Reuters) – Greek fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas staved off a fightback from German Alexander Zverev to win 6-3 6-3 4-6 4-6 6-3 in a scintillating French Open clash on Friday and book a maiden Grand Slam final spot.
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 on a sun-bathed Philippe Chatrier court.
U.S. Open finalist Zverev 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 Zverev staring at his coaching team bewildered.
The sixth-seeded German, however, regrouped and added more power to his shots with early breaks in the third and fourth sets enough for him to level the match at two sets apiece.
Tsitsipas needed to change his game in the decider and the 22-year-old managed to find an extra gear to seal the contest on his fifth match point and booked a final outing against either top seed Novak Djokovic or 13-time winner Rafa Nadal.
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Berhampore, India; Editing by Ken Ferris)
