Stefanos Tsitsipas couldn't hold back the tears as he came to terms with reaching a first ever Grand Slam singles final.
Despite racing into a 2-sets to love lead over sixth seed Alexander Zverev, the Greek player would need five sets to win their French Open semi-final.
Asked to sum up his feelings afterwards by Marion Bartoli, Tsitsipas said, "All I can think of is my roots, where I came from.
"I cam from a really small place outside Athens.
"My dream was to play here. My dream was to play on the big stage of the French Open one day."
The 5,000 spectators inside the Philippe-Chatrier Court then threw a collective arm around the 22-year old, as he could no longer dam his emotions.
It's your moment, @steftsitsipas. 💙
Soak it in. #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/zHhhXRBwoc— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 11, 2021
Tsitsipas looked to be cruising early on in the match, taking the first set 6-3, and then winning the second by the same score despite trailing by 3-games to 1 at one stage.
But Zverev found traction in the third, taking it 6-4, and levelling the match by winning the fourth set by the same margin.
The pressure seemed only to galvanise Tsitsipas. He broke Zverev in the fourth game of the final set, and went on to force four match points on the sixth seed's serve before eventually prevailing 6-3.
"Well, it was nerve-wracking, it was so intense," said the fifth seed after the match.
"The first game of the fifth set was so important. I came back from three breakpoints down, I had the crowd with me, they were cheering me on.
"I still had hope, I knew I could fight and make something happen, so that's what I did. I went through many phases in this match, almost had an emotional breakdown, but this win means the most for me.
"This is probably the most important win of my career so far.
"There were a lot of people in the crowd and in Greece who were cheering me on.
"It's very important to have these people in and around me. I want to do more, to be recognised more in the country.
"I think Greece is a bigger part of the tennis community now, and I think both me and Maria Sakkari have been doing all we can to keep Greece improving in this sport."
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