Flavio Cobolli was brought to tears after securing his spot in the ATP 500 Munich final with a 6-3 6-3 win over world No 3 Alexander Zverev.
On his way to his first Tour win over a top-five opponent, Cobolli fired 32 winners and lost just eight points on his first serve to move past Zverev, the defending champion.
The 23-year-old Italian will play either Ben Shelton or Alex Molcan in Sunday's final as he looks to take his second Tour title this year after winning the ATP 500 title in Acapulco in February.
"It was one of my best matches ever, against one of my best friends on Tour," said Cobolli.
"He's a really good guy ad we have a good relationship with everyone on his team, so it was a little bit tough to play against him.
"But today I think I played one of my best matches, and I'm really happy about my performance."
Cobolli's victory also makes him just the third player this season to make ATP Tour finals on both clay and hard courts, joining Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
He also moves up to 12th in the live ATP rankings as he chases his fourth ATP Tour title and third at ATP 500 level after winning his maiden trophy in Bucharest last year.
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