Top seed Harold Mayot fought back 3-6 6-3 6-2 against fellow Frenchman Timo Legout in the boys’ singles to book his first ever Grand Slam final.
The 17-year-old, a Wimbledon semifinalist and ITF Junior Masters finalist in 2019, will vie for the title against another compatriot Arthur Cazaux.
“It’s of course an amazing feeling to be in the final here in Australia. I came here last year and lost in the second round, it was tough to take,” Mayot, who trains in Paris at the national tennis centre near Roland Garros, told ausopen.com.
“I remember how I felt so sad after that match, but now I’m in the final and I hope I can win this tournament.”
The talented French duo had to battle a number of elements at Melbourne Park, with extreme heat, wind and rain showers, and Mayot was pleased with his patience.
“I think I managed the match very well. The conditions were Timo was playing great at the start, taking the ball very early, which was very difficult for me. But I kept going, kept fighting to the end," he said.
Mayot and Cazaux, doubles partners this week before falling at the quarterfinal stage, will take to Rod Laver Arena for their silverware showdown on Saturday.
“Yeah it’s amazing to have two French boys in the final. Arthur is my good friend, I’m known him since we were so young, about eight years old. We’ve been in French teams together, winning a lot of titles together," Mayot said.
“It’s going to be tough facing a good friend like this, but we have to play the match, to remember it is the final of a Grand Slam.
“I need to focus on my match, but if I won it would be amazing to win a Slam. We will see.”
At the start of the season, in ATP Challengers, junior world No.3 Mayot stunned two players in the top 150 and believes it boosted his chances this week.
“Of course, the experience of playing these kind of tournaments has helped me a lot here. When players face me here, they think I’m a very good player, it must be tough to face me,” continued Mayot, who defeated Facundo Bagnis and Egor Gerasimov, before a tight loss to world No.81 Steve Johnson.
“I take a lot of experience and confidence from playing those Challengers.”
Earlier on Friday, Cazaux downed No.12 seed Karlis Ozolins 4-6 6-1 6-2 off the back of 11 aces and 21 winners to earn his finale with Mayot.
It is the first fully French boys’ singles final since 2004, when world No.10 Gael Monfils defeated Josselin Ouanna.
Over to the girls’ singles and No.9 seed Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva will take on Polish prodigy Weronika Baszak for the trophy.
The Andorran, the youngest player in the draw, flourished as the frontrunner to breeze to a 6-3 6-2 victory over No.13 seed Zhuoxuan Bai.
“It was a tough match. Today I think I played well, I was intense the whole time. I served really well. I'm managed to control the match well. Today I was trying to be less nervous. I still was, but I wanted to start well,” stated the 14-year-old, the first Andorran to make a junior major final.
"I was leading the match from the start. This is one more tournament. It's very incredible, but I want more. Tomorrow is the final, so I will see. But I'm very happy right now.”
In the doubles finals, No.4 seeds Alexandra Eala and Priska Madelyn Nugroho needed only 49 minutes to be crowned girls’ doubles champions, sending 6-1 6-2 onto the scoreboard up against Ziva Falkner partnering Matilda Mutavdzic.
Meanwhile, Nicholas David Ionel and Leandro Riedi completed a remarkable comeback to clinch the boys’ doubles title.
The No.5 seeds overhauled Ozolins and Mikolaj Lorens’s opening set lead to prevail 6-7(8) 7-5 [10-4] in the champion’s tiebreak.