Stefanos Tsitsipas celebrates winning a point during his match against Alexander Zverev.Greek tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas advanced to his first career grand slam final with victory over Alexander Zverev at the French Open on Friday.
The world No. 5 won 6-3 6-3 4-6 4-6 6-3 in the semifinal against Zverev at Roland Garros.
Having blitzed into a two-set lead, world No. 6 Zverev produced a stirring comeback to win the third and fourth sets, but after regrouping, Tsitsipas came back with a bang, winning the decisive set.
The 22-year-old Tsitsipas will now face either Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic in Sunday's final.
"All I can think of is my roots, where I came from, I came from a really small place outside of Athens. My dream was to play here, my dream was to play in the big stage of the French Open one day, I would have never thought that I would," said Tsitsipas on court after his victory.
"There were a lot of people today that were raising flags, people cheering me on in Greek, it was very important to have these people around.
"It's very important for me to do my job well enough to have recognition back in my country, but not only that, I'm very happy that Greece is part of the tennis community more now," added Tsitsipas.
Tsitsipas made to wait for first Grand Slam title
Novak Djokovic won his 19th Grand Slam title after fighting back from two sets down to beat Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas in the French Open final.
Top seed Djokovic, 34, was in deep trouble before rediscovering his energy to win 6-7 (6-8) 2-6 6-3 6-2 6-4.