World number one Novak Djokovic set up an intriguing final with Rafael Nadal after a 6-3 6-7 (2-7) 6-3 victory over Diego Schwartzman at the Italian Open.

Djokovic, who saved two match points in his quarter-final win over Juan Martin del Potro, beat a spirited Schwartzman in Rome in two hours 31 minutes.

Defending champion Nadal reached his 50th Masters 1000 final with a 6-3 6-4 win over Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece.

His majestic forehand dominated as he won in one hour 42 minutes.

Djokovic’s win in three hours one minute over Del Potro had finished at 1.05am local time on Saturday morning and his evening semi-final provided another stern test against another Argentine, Schwartzman, who played a series of impressive drop shots.

The Serb had won their two previous meetings, the last of which was at Roland Garros in 2017, and he claimed the first break in the seventh game when Schwartzman netted a forehand.

But having lost the opening set in 36 minutes, Schwartzman, in his first Masters 1000 semi-final, kept in contention and a superb backhand down the line gave him a break in the fifth game of the second set.

It was the first of four successive breaks in a fluctuating set that went to a tie-break, which Schwartzman, winner of two ATP titles, quickly took control of.

Djokovic, 31, seized the key break in the sixth game of the decider to reach his ninth Italian final as he bids to repeat last week’s victory at the Madrid Open.

He leads 28-25 in his duel with Nadal that began in 2006, winning their most recent encounter in the first Grand Slam of this year, the Australian Open in January, but the Spaniard has dominated their clay court matches 16-7.

Nadal, 32, had lost in the semi-finals of his last four tournaments, including a defeat against Tsitsipas last weekend in Madrid.

It is his first clay court final of the year and he will look to continue a fine record in the Masters 1,000 Series.

Since 2005, the Spaniard has won at least one of the nine events in the calendar every year except 2015.

In overcast, breezy conditions in the Italian capital, Nadal built a 3-0 lead and took the opening set in 49 minutes.

He continued to work the athletic Tsitsipas, who won this month’s Estoril Open and lost in the Madrid final to Djokovic last week, with some typically stylish, precise groundstokes into the corners.

Tsitsipas, who moved into the last four by virtue of Roger Federer’s withdrawal through injury, had not dropped a set in the tournament and was seeking a fifth final this season, which would have taken him to fifth in the world rankings.

But Nadal was in masterful form and recorded his fourth win in five matches against the powerful world number seven.

British number one Johanna Konta came from a set down against Kiki Bertens to reach the final of the Italian Open.

Konta – who will be seeded at the French Open later this month – beat Dutch sixth seed Bertens 5-7 7-5 6-2 in two hours 49 minutes in Rome.

The 28-year-old will play world number seven Karolina Pliskova, who beat Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-4 6-4.

Konta is the first British woman to reach the Italian Open final since Virginia Wade in 1971.

Victory over world number four Bertens marked her first over a top-five opponent since defeating Simona Halep at Wimbledon in 2017.

Both players lost serve twice in the first set before Bertens was able to take the early advantage, breaking world number 42 Konta at set point.

The first two games of the second set went against serve but Konta was able to capitalise on a break at 5-5 to level the match.

Konta dominated the deciding set, breaking Bertens’ serve twice, though she needed four match points to seal the win, having made three unforced errors at 40-0 in the final game.

The Briton lost her first clay-court final to Sakkari at the Morocco Open this month and will now play her maiden Premier WTA event final on the surface.

Sakkari had beaten Pliskova in last year’s event but converted only one break point opportunity as she slipped to defeat in an hour and 28 minutes.

Pliskova, winner of 12 WTA titles to Konta’s three, has won five of the pair’s six completed matches, though the Briton won their most recent match, which came on the hard courts of Beijing in 2016.

Analysis

Russell Fuller, BBC tennis correspondent:

Konta’s game has been on an upward curve all season.

She has excelled wearing British colours in the Fed Cup, but had not cashed in on tour – until the clay court season got underway.

Konta has always believed she can be successful on the surface, but until this year results had not borne her out.

Her movement looks much improved, as does her drop shot – which is such a handy trick to have up your sleeve on clay.

Not only will Konta now be seeded for Roland Garros, but she has also put herself in a very good position to be a seed at Wimbledon, too.

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Great Britain’s men’s wheelchair tennis team stunned Japan to reach the final of the BNP Paribas World Team Cup.

Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett each won 6-4 7-5, helping them and team-mate Dermot Bailey past the top seeds.

They face France on Saturday and will ensure Britain end the tournament with a record-equalling three medals.

Great Britain’s junior team leave the event with silver after a final defeat to Australia, while the women’s team won bronze against South Africa.

The women’s team of Jordanne Whiley, Mariska Shuker, Louise Hunt and Cornelia Oosthuizen started quickly when Whiley overcame Mariska Venter 6-4 6-1 and progressed when Shuker’s opponent retired injured in the deciding set of their match.

The junior quartet of Dahnon Ward, Gregory Slade, Ben Bartram and Ruby Bishop had their hopes of gold dashed when doubles pairing Bartram and Ward lost 14-12 in the deciding match tie break.

Not since 2012 have Great Britain ended the tournament with three medals and it could have been four but for a 2-1 defeat for the quad team of Andy Lapthorne, Antony Cotterill and James Shaw against South Africa on Friday.

The World Team Cup is the wheelchair tennis equivalent of the Fed Cup and Davis Cup competitions, with teams from 23 nations taking part in the finals in Ramat Hasharon, Israel.

The men’s final between Great Britain and France will see Reid and Hewett face off against Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer, the duo who beat them in the Rio 2016 Paralympic final.

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