Dominic Thiem produced a battling performance to oust world number one Novak Djokovic and reach Sunday’s title decider at the last ever ATP Finals to be staged in London.

Djokovic staved off five match points in an extremely tight match but the Austrian rallied from a poor second-set tie-break to prevail 7-5 6-7 (10-12) 7-6 (7-5) in London.

It was a repeat of the 2020 Australian Open final which Djokovic won having been down two sets to one,  but it was Thiem who showed nerves of steel to claw his way back from 4-0 in the deciding tie-break but Thiem to thwart Djokovic’s bid for a record-equalling 6th title and claim a fine win at the O2 Arena.

Thiem will play Rafael Nadal or Daniil Medvedev in the final.

Spanish world number two Nadal, who has never won the season-ending showpiece, plays the Russian in Saturday’s other semifinal.

In a year in which he won his first Grand Slam title at the US Open, Thiem can add a maiden ATP Finals trophy to his cabinet and make up for his loss to Stepanos Tsitsipas in last year’s final.