Stefanos Tsitsipas reached his sixth tour-level final of the season Saturday when he earned a comeback win against Andrey Rublev at the Astana Open.
In front of a lively crowd at the ATP 500 event, the Greek upped his intensity and aggression as the match went on to overcome the fifth seed 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in two hours and 10 minutes.
With his victory, Tsitsipas has improved to 6-4 in his ATP Head2Head series against the World No. 9 and will next face Novak Djokovic or Daniil Medvedev in Sunday’s final. The third seed, who qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals last week, is aiming to win his third tour-level title of the year in Astana, having triumphed in Monte Carlo and Mallorca.
In a tight first set, Rublev played the bigger points better, saving all three break points he faced to move ahead. However, Tsitsipas refused to go away as he started to open his shoulders and swing freely. The Greek broke in the 10th game of the second set to level, before he held his nerve in the third set to earn his 53rd tour-level win of the season.
Tsitsipas is seeking his first ATP 500 title this week in Astana. He has reached eight finals at this level before this week, but has yet to prevail.
