Andreas Seppi is the first player through to the men’s final at the Sydney International, ending a barren three-and-a-half year run with an appearance in a decider for the Italian.

Seppi on Friday ran through Argentinian Diego Schwartzman, taking control of the semi-final in a first-set tiebreaker before eventually winning 7-6 (7-3) 6-4.

He’ll now play the winner of Australian Alex de Minaur and Gilles Simon.

The world No.37 Seppi hasn’t played in an ATP world tour final since June 2015 in Halle in Germany, while his last win was way in Moscow on 2012.

However the 34-year-old has enjoyed a solid run in Sydney this year, knocking over No.1 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets in their quarter-final on Thursday before beating Schwartzman on Friday.