Novak Djokovic was given a timely reminder of his mortality before sealing a place in a fifth French Open final of his career.
The top seed and world no.1 beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in five sets to book a Sunday afternoon date with Rafa Nadal.
Djokovic had raced into a 2-0 lead, and looked poised to match Nadal's straight sets victory earlier in the day on the Philippe-Chatrier.
But the 5th seed survived match point in the third before winning it 7-5. It was the first time the Serb had dropped a set this year in Paris.
Fifty-eight minutes later, he'd lost another. Tsitsipas regained parity by breaking Djokovic in the tenth game of the fourth set to edge it by 6-games to 4.
What a final it will be 😁#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/0GabD40i7O
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) October 9, 2020
But Djokovic regained his footing by breaking Tsitispas in the third game of the fifth set, and from there he raced to the finish line.
The final set was wrapped up in little over thirty-minutes to set up a sixteenth Grand Slam meeting with Nadal.
The battle for career Grand Slams is coming to a steady simmer now also.
A win for Nadal on Sunday will see him equal Roger Federer's record of 20. Should Djokovic do what no-one else has done on twelve prior occasions - beat Nadal in a French Open final - he'll move to within on of the Spaniard on 18.
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