Flavio Cobolli came from a shoot on Friday to defeat Tomas Martin Etcheverry 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 and reach the Hamburg Open final, where he will face Andrey Rublev.
Cobolli found himself hanging around 3-1 in the second set but fought to reach his second final of the season.
Rublev, winner in Hamburg in 2020 and a finalist in 2019, passed the past Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada 6-1, 6-4 and was now biding for his second title this year after winning the Qatar Open.
Etcheverry, a specialist in Clay-Court, won his first breaking points in the sixth game and converted the third opportunity to mount 4-2.
He then broke Cobolli, ranked 35th in the world, when the Italian – who had 18 uncomposed mistakes at this stage, three times more than his opponent – to double on the third set of Etcheverry.
Etcheverry first maintained the pressure, hitting the ball deeply, with a shot landing flat on the base line to break his opponent again and take a 3-1 advance at the start of the second set.
Cobolli, however, has not been made, reducing its number of errors and pinning the engraving to the basic line with longer rallies.
He broke the world number 55 twice to set up 6-5 and held the service to seize the second set.
The two players kept the service overall decisive until Cobolli separates from 5-4, then converted his first match point.
The draw of the French Open begins on Sunday in Roland-Garros, where Rublev heads 17th.
Reuters contributed to this report.
