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Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece celebrates defeating Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta in two sets 7-5, 6-3, in his semifinal match against of the Barcelona Open Tennis Tournament in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday. Image Credit: AP

Barcelona: Greek teenager Stefanos Tsitsipas stormed into the Barcelona Open final by beating Spain’s world No. 11 Pablo Carreno Busta 7-5 6-3 on Saturday to reach his first ATP showpiece.

World number one and defending champion Rafael Nadal meets Belgian David Goffin in the other semi-final later on Saturday to determine who will face Tsitsipas in the final.

Tsitsipas, 19, had pulled off the biggest win of his career on Friday before by stunning last year’s finalist and world number seven Dominic Thiem in straight sets and was the underdog against Carreno Busta, who is ranked 52 places above him.

The youngster got off to a flying start as he broke his opponent in the second game and marched into a 4-1 lead. The Spaniard hit back with a break to level at 5-5 but wasted a chance to break again and lost his serve to concede the set.

Tsitsipas, ranked 63rd, broke the 27-year-old for a third time to pull 4-2 ahead in the second and eventually served out the match, collapsing to the ground in elation as he won on his second match point when Carreno Busta hit beyond the baseline.

Tsitsipas becomes the first Greek player to reach an ATP final since 1973 when Nicholas Kalogeropoulos made the final of the now defunct Des Moines Open.

Earlier on Friday, Nadal extended his astonishing winning run on clay to 42 consecutive sets as he reached the semi-finals with a 6-0, 7-5 victory over Slovakia’s Martin Klizan.

World number 140 Klizan, who had knocked out Novak Djokovic in the second round, came within a point of being the first player since Thiem in May 2017 to win a set against the Mallorcan on the slow surface but the world number one’s famed battling skills denied him that moment of glory.

After romping through the opening set, Nadal lost his focus and surrendered his serve at the start of the second set. But just as Klizan appeared to be on the verge of delivering a psychological blow, the 10-times Barcelona champion saved the set point at 4-5 down before breaking back to level.

He held in the next game to take the lead for the first time in the second set and then broke a tired Klizan to clinch his place in the semis.

“He played very aggressively and caused me a lot of discomfort ... he was unpredictable and that caused me confusion. It was tough, but the important thing was not to fail,” Nadal told a news conference.