And the Greek hopes to one day be as popular as the Swiss great.

Only the most one-eyed Federer followers could not have been impressed with the Tsitsipas's 6-3 6-4 victory, achieved with the kind of tennis they are used to seeing from their idol.

His reward is a place in the final against Dominic Thiem, after the Austrian accounted for last year's champion Alexander Zverev 7-5 6-3.

With his fearless, eye-pleasing groundstrokes, regular forays to the net and booming serves, Tsitsipas certainly has much to applaud.

But the 21-year-old knows the Federer followers will be tough to win over.

"I hope they like me when I play out on the court, because I feel like I have a lot of things to offer for tennis," Tsitsipas said.

"And I would love to see one day potentially a fan base and people come to the court like they do for Roger, because it's an army.

"And you need that. You need an army like this.

"I want to feel connected with people. I want to be known as a good tennis player because that's what the fans want to see. They want to see a good personality."

Tsitsipas saved 11 of the 12 break points he faced and survived an epic 13-minute game when he served for the first set at 5-3, sealing it at the seventh time of asking.

For Federer, it was a case of what may have been after two botched overheads in the same game cost him a break and his inability to take advantage of his openings.

"I think getting broken with missing two smashes in one game, that hasn't happened in a long, long time or ever," the 38-year-old said.

One suspects Tsitsipas's style would get the nod of approval from Federer and he was generous in his praise for the world No.6.

"I have to credit him for pushing me to not playing at the level I was hoping to today," Federer said.

"He did come up with the goods when he had to, and he was better than me today."

In Saturday's second semi-final, there was little to separate the players until the 12th game of a tight opening set, when a tense Zverev double-faulted on set point to hand his rival the early advantage in the match before flinging his racket across the court in frustration.

Thiem, who was suffering with a cold, broke Zverev to take a 4-2 lead in the second set and cruised to victory.

"This is a big, big dream coming true for me, it is one of the biggest and most prestigious tournaments of the whole year and I'm getting the chance to play the final," Thiem, twice a French Open finalist, said.

Australian Associated Press