Sinner was pushed all the way by world No. 136 Atmane, who appeared inspired in the opening set against the US Open champion, before the world No. 1’s quality began to shine through.

The Italian won 7-6(4) 6-2 on his birthday as he continues to replicate the preparation that saw him triumph at Flushing Meadows 12 months ago, though the second-set scoreline perhaps did not give Atmane the credit that his performance deserved.

“Very, very tough challenge, every time you play against something completely new, it is very difficult, but playing against this guy in the later stages of a tournament makes it a bit more difficult,” Sinner said in his on-court interview.

“The pressure is higher, you know that they deserve to be there, he has been an incredible player throughout his way to the semi-finals, so I knew that I had to be very, very careful. My mindset today was in a good spot. I feel like I handled the situation very well, he was serving incredibly well in the first set.

“He has huge, huge potential, I think we saw that throughout this tournament and I wish him only the best. From my side, I am very happy, happy again to be in a final, so let us see what is coming.”

A rapid-fire start to the match saw each player hold their serve six times without so much as a deuce to interfere. Atmane could only win three points on Sinner’s serve ahead of the tie-breaker but was bulletproof in his own games and left the No. 1 seed visibly exhausted in the 33-degree Celsius heat.

However, Sinner claimed an instant mini-break in the tie-breaker and the Frenchman could not recover. A set down, Atmane was losing pace with Sinner and his resistance was broken in rather more straight-forward fashion in the second set.

Atmane conceded the match on his own serve, a fate he did not deserve after playing so strongly against the reigning champion, but received a standing ovation from the crowd as he left P&G Center Court at the end of a fairytale run that had featured wins over seeds Holger Rune, Taylor Fritz, and Flavio Cobolli.

Alcaraz breezes past Zverev

Alcaraz, meanwhile, benefited from Zverev clearly not playing at full-fitness, taking a 6-4 6-3 victory in a match which was interrupted by a medical time-out for the German.

“It’s never easy playing against someone that you know is not feeling 100%,” Alcaraz said. “It’s even tougher when it comes from Sascha, such a great player, such a great person off the court. We have a really good relationship.

“We started the match really good, playing good rallies, a good level of tennis.

“But then all of a sudden he started to feel bad. And then my focus, I was thinking about how he’s feeling, besides focusing on myself and playing good tennis. It was a really difficult situation for me and I just wish him all the best.”

Alcaraz was rock-solid on serve in the opening set, leaving Zverev little room to attack – and the world No. 2 gained the advantage when he fashioned two break-point opportunities for a 4-3 lead, snaffling up at the second opportunity and holding to a set lead.

An early second-set wobble saw Alcaraz rattle off three double faults and give his opponent the perfect chance to seize an advantage. After a wildly-contested deuce, Zverve did just that, but could not prevent an immediate break back.

The ailing Zverev then fell on the wrong side of an utterly dominant final four games, failing to win a single point as Alcaraz closed out the match with back-to-back breaks to love.

According to ATP, the victory sees Alcaraz become the third-youngest player to reach nine Masters 1000 finals after Rafael Nadal (20) and Novak Djokovic (21).Watch and stream top tennis action live and on demand on TNT Sports and discovery+