The top seed returned to the court on Saturday morning with Tsitsipas serving at 6-4, 2-1, and he broke serve in two of his opening five return games to force a decider. Rain suspended play twice on Friday, but there was no denying Djokovic on Saturday. The Serbian twice recovered from a breakdown in the decider to reach the final four in Rome for the right.
The defending champion won through 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 after 3hr 16min on court in the clash which had been suspended from Friday because of rain in the Italian capital.
Djokovic sealed the match on his second match point to set up a meeting with either Russian seventh seed Andrey Rublev or Italian Lorenzo Sonego later in the day for a place in Sunday’s final.