Stefanos Tsitsipas reached his first Grand Slam final on Friday at Roland Garros, after he withstood a comeback by Alexander Zverev from two-sets-to-love down to clinch a tense deciding set.
The fifth-seeded Greek needed five match points to complete a hard-fought 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3 victory over sixth seed Zverev in three hours and 37 minutes. In breaking a three-match losing streak in major semi-finals, Tsitsipas earned a Tour-leading 39th match win this year.
"All I can think of is my roots," said Tsitsipas, in an on-court interview. "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.... There were a lot of people cheering me on in my country and I'm very happy that Greece is part of the tennis community now. Maria [Sakkari] and I have done a good job of elevating the sport and keeping Greek tennis alive."
Tsitsipas, who is now 6-4 in five-set matches, will now prepare to challenge World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, the 2016 champion, in Sunday’s final. Tsitsipas trails Djokovic 2-5 in their ATP Head2Head series. Djokovic beat 13-time champion Rafael Nadal 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-2 over four hours and 11 minutes later in the day.
Source: https://www.atptour.com/en/news/tsitsipas-zverev-roland-garros-2021-sf-friday