"He was normal like all of us and he managed to become this beast, this monster that he is today," Tsitsipas said. "It's true ... that's how you feel when you play against him. I need to work much more and hopefully I can reach his level one day."Nadal overcame a late service break and fought off a set point at Aviva Centre. He converted his first match point of the tiebreaker to end it.

"He never cracks," Tsitsipas said. "He will always grab you like a bulldog and he will always make you suffer on the court."Tsitsipas reached the final by becoming the youngest player to beat four straight top-10 players in an event since the ATP World Tour was established in 1990. He began the run against seventh-seeded Dominic Thiem, then knocked off No 9 Djokovic, No 2 Alexander Zverev and No 4 Kevin Anderson.

Tsitsipas will jump from 27th to 15th in the world on Monday.

In the doubles final, Finland's Henri Kontinen and Australia's John Peers topped Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Michael Venus of New Zealand 6-2, 6-7 (7), 10-6.

                                                                                                            AP