ATP Tour

Greek teenager Tsitsipas into Barcelona final

2018-04-28 16:27

Barcelona - Greek teenager Stefanos Tsitsipas continued his charmed run at the Barcelona Open reaching a first ATP final with a 7-5, 6-3 win over fifth-seed Pablo Carreno Busta on Saturday.

The reward for the 19-year-old, ranked 63rd in the world, is a match-up with either world number one Rafael Nadal or David Goffin who meet in the other semi-final later on Saturday.

The last Greek to make an ATP final was Nicholas Kalogeropoulos in Des Moines back in 1973.

Tsitsipas is the youngest Barcelona finalist since Nadal in 2005.

Success for Nadal against Belgium's Goffin would be his 400th win on clay as the Spaniard seeks an 11th title in Barcelona.

Win or loss on Sunday, Tsitsipas will become the first Greek player to break into the ATP Top 50 when the latest men's rankings are released on Monday.

The fast-rising Greek stunned third-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem on Friday 6-3, 6-2.

That was his second win over a top 10 player - Thiem is seventh in the world - following victory over Goffin during his best previous run, to the semi-finals in Antwerp last October.

Yet to drop a set this week, Tsitsipas served five aces and won 78 percent of first serves to see off his Spanish rival in one hour 35 minutes.

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