Fourth seed Cobolli downed the home favourite 6-3, 6-3 in just under 70 minutes in their semi-final meeting.
“I’m a little bit shy when I play with a big player, but today I played one of my best performances and I’m really happy,” Cobolli said.
Cobolli advances to his second final of the season, where he will look to add to the title he picked up in Acapulco in February.
Shelton, who later Saturday beat qualifier Alex Molcan 6-3, 6-4, will be the man standing in Cobolli’s way as the American seeks to go one better than last year when he lost the Munich title match to Zverev.
Second seed Shelton broke in the sixth game of the first set to get his nose in front against the 166th-ranked Slovakian and then secured a crucial second break of the match to go 5-4 up in the final set.
The 23-year-old was on form with his serve as Molcan managed to engineer just one break point across the two sets, which Shelton saved. (AFP)
