Romance does not always collide elegantly with history and Rafael Nadal, who has rarely thrived on the southern reaches of the Thames, is unlikely again to come closer to winning the ATP Tour Finals trophy than he did on Friday.

When all around Nadal was chaos and all in front of him lay grand possibilities, the numbers did not fall his way. He is 33. He does not like playing indoors on hardcourt. But he has done pretty well.

Nadal has been in splendid form despite concerns about his fitness and he did his best in the afternoon, coming from behind for the second time in three days to still the challenge of the brilliant Stefanos Tsitsipas. It gave him a glimpse of the weekend schedule. But he needed Daniil Medvedev, the Russian he embarrassed two days earlier and who had no chance of going through to the weekend, to beat Alexander Zverev, who is in the growing pack of young contenders. Zverev went through with a solid 6-4, 7-6 (4) win and he will now face Dominic Thiem in the semi-finals. Tsitsipas will face Roger Federer in the other tie.

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Nadal’s earlier fight was, in one regard, not one he desperately needed to win, given his immediate commitments. He had already secured the world No1 ranking when Novak Djokovic fell to Federer the previous evening but it was a match he fought with heart and guile to win 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-5 over two hours and 52 minutes of often spellbinding struggle. Victory guaranteed nothing.

Nadal, who sprinted from the court to brush his thinning hair and change his shirt, returned to accept his No1 ranking trophy (the fifth of his career) and said: “I’m super happy. After all I went through my career, the injuries, I never thought at 33-and-a-half I’d have my hands on this trophy again. A lot of work in the shadows to be where we are today.”

In the penultimate match of the round-robin series, the first set moved with grinding inevitability to a tie-break, where the young Greek unleashed his full power to go a set up in just under an hour. The quality of the exchanges flickered as each player strained for dominance. Nadal soaked up five aces – but not the one down the T that sealed the set.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alexander Zverev’s win over Daniil Medvedev means he goes through to the last four instead of Nadal. Photograph: Ella Ling/BPI/Shutterstock

Tsitsipas seemed headed for a routine win as he cranked up his serve in the second set but Nadal fought hard for every point to stay on terms eight games and 38 minutes in. The crowd leaned forward for each rally, wondering if the young Greek would implode the way Medvedev did when in sight of victory two nights earlier.

Tsitsipas, on fire, was a nightmare with ball in hand. However, when Nadal smashed athletically for break point in the night game, punching the air as only he can, then finished the job by forcing his opponent to push a nervous forehand wide into the tramlines, it was the Spaniard who was properly en fuego.

They had been on court for an hour and three-quarters but there was spring still in Nadal’s step as he served out to level at a set apiece – in the fight he did not need. Nadal crafted two break points in the fifth game, eyes blazing, only to see Tsitsipas, a little calmer, steel himself for a quality hold with his booming serve and a solid forehand.

Nadal ratcheted up the pressure, and Tsitsipas had to save two break points in the seventh set, holding with his 11th ace. Nadal had not given Tsitsipas a single look on his serve in two and a half hours. In 127 matches in his career Nadal had not given up a break point, winning each time. That was a lot of history for Tsitsipas to overcome.

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Nadal, tired but playing near his awesome peak, stepped up to the service line at 4-5 in the third and produced a rock-solid hold. At 30-all Tsitsipas was stranded when Nadal planted a blistering forehand on the line for his eighth break point of the match. He saved but gave up another – and this time he could not handle a volley at his feet, and Nadal served for the match, with new balls. As it happens, he could have done it with a rolled-up sock.

The byword of this tournament – the 50th in the history of the event and the 11th here before the move to Turin in 2021 and – has been unpredictability. While expectations were not as nailed on as in previous years, not many would have predicted Tsitsipas to beat Medvedev for the first time in the first round, or Zverev to get the better of Nadal; then Thiem played out of his skin to beat Federer and Djokovic, although the Serb looked brilliant in defeat – then abject in two sets against Federer, whose loss to Thiem was poor by his standards.

Topping all that, Nadal produced magic from his locker to recover from match point and 1-5 down to beat a demoralised Medvedev. Sadly Medvedev could not return the favour.