Stefanos Tsitsipas stuns Rafa Nadal to set up Djokovic showdown

Tsitsipas, 20, had never won a set in his previous three meetings against claycourt specialist and 11-times French Open champion Nadal, but the Greek drew first blood by saving a break point to hold in the 10th game and take the first set.

Nadal, who had breezed past the youngster in the Barcelona Open final last season and this year's Australian Open semi-finals, won the second set and looked to have the physical edge over his opponent, who has also been playing doubles in Madrid.

But Tsitsipas, the Next Gen ATP finals champion, came back stronger in the decider with impressive court coverage and broke Nadal to take a 5-2 lead although he could not immediately serve out for the match.

He earned repeated match points in the next game when Nadal was serving and after the Spaniard had dug deep to save three of them he could only find the net on the fourth. Tsitsipas dropped his racket and put his hands to his face to savour his first victory over the titan of claycourt tennis, completing a clean sweep of wins over Djokovic, Nadal and Roger Federer in less than 10 months.

Nadal, meanwhile, was left reflecting on a third straight semi-final exit on clay after losing to Fabio Fognini in the Monte Carlo Masters and Dominic Thiem in the Barcelona Open.