Adding another chapter to a remarkable breakthrough season, Stefanos Tsitsipas reached his third final of 2018 on Saturday, beating Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-2 at the Intrum Stockholm Open.
The #NextGenATP Greek, twice a runner-up this season — in Barcelona and Toronto — defeated the second-seeded Italian after 76 minutes. The 20-year-old won 70 per cent of his service points and saved all four break points he faced to improve to 3-2 in tour-level semi-finals in 2018. Tsitsipas will aim to lift his first tour-level title on Sunday when he faces top seed John Isner or Latvian Ernests Gulbis in the championship match.
"[The key to the match] was to stay patient," said Tsitsipas. "[Fabio] was going for shots and the beginning of the match was really tough... I was patient in the rallies. That is how I got the win today."
The Rogers Cup finalist is 0-2 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against World No. 10 Isner and he has never played Gulbis at tour-level. The 20-year-old, currently ranked one position below his career-high No. 15 ATP Ranking, owns a 38-25 record this season. Before this season, Tsitsipas owned just four tour-level match wins.
Fognini was bidding to reach his fifth tour-level final of the season in his ninth semi-final (4-5). The 31-year-old, who has captured trophies in Sao Paulo, Bastad and Los Cabos this year, has fallen in the last four in Stockholm in each of the past two seasons. In last year's semi-finals, Fognini also fell in straight sets to Grigor Dimitrov.
"[Fabio] is a player that has been in the Top 20 for many years," said Tsitsipas. " He won many titles this year and has had a fantastic year. This victory has a lot of value to it."
Did You Know?
In August, Tsitsipas became the youngest player to beat four Top 10 opponents at a single event since the ATP World Tour began in 1990.
