Novak Djokovic set up a Rome Masters finals battle of the ATP generations on Saturday against exciting young German Alexander Zverev.
Djokovic, a four-time champion at the Foro Italico, had to finish off a quarter-final against Juan Martin del Potro to start his day after a thunderstorm interruption the night before.
He then came back out and crushed Austrian eighth seed Domenic Thiem 6-1 6-0 with five breaks of serve in less than an hour to reach Sunday's decider.
The match was the most dominating of the week for the world No.2 who turns 30 on Monday and brushed aside Madrid finalist Thiem, who broke Rafael Nadal's 17-match winning streak in the quarters in straight sets.
Djokovic will now line up in his eighth Rome final, where he stands 4-3 with titles in 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2015.
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His only trophy of 2017 came in the first week of the season in Doha.
German Zverev, 20, broke fresh ground for his generation as he defeated wily American veteran John Isner 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-1.
The youngest member of the top 20 went through in two hours with a dozen aces and three breaks of giant American Isner, whom he has now defeated in all three of their meetings.
The last German to reach a Masters 1000 final was Nicolas Kiefer in Toronto in 2008; the last to win one was Tommy Haas in 2001 in Stuttgart.
The 17th-ranked Zverev will move to 14th in the standings and could take over 10th with a title.
"I'm into my first final of a Masters Series, which is great, and especially on clay," the German said,
"On [clay] it's a very physical game and it's very tough points all the time, long points.
"I'm happy the way I'm playing, but I still want to keep improving and I still want to develop my game and get better."
