Cilic joins elite group by reaching Aussie final
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With his 6-2, 7-6 (4), 6-2 semifinal win over 49th-ranked Kyle Edmund, Cilic became only the second man from outside the 鈥淏ig Four鈥 to reach the final at season-opening major in a decade.
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have dominated the men鈥檚 finals since 2009 with only 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka breaking the quartet鈥檚 court occupation in the championship match. The 29-year-old Cilic, the first Croatian to make the final at Melbourne Park, could face the founding member of the 鈥淏ig Four鈥 in the final on Sunday. That鈥檚 if defending champion Federer can get past Chung Hyeon today.
Cilic lost to Federer in last year鈥檚 Wimbledon final, where he was injured and struggling at the end. This time, he has held off No. 10 Pablo Carreno Busta and top-ranked Rafael Nadal and thinks, with two days to rest before the final, he鈥檒l be in better shape.
鈥淚鈥檓 feeling really, really good physically,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 played a great tournament so far with my level of tennis. I improved it comparing to end of the last year. I鈥檓 playing much, much more aggressive, feeling really excited about the final, too.鈥
It鈥檒l be a third major final for Cilic, who beat Federer in the semifinals at the 2014 US Open before going on to win his breakthrough grand slam title.
He reached the semifinals in Melbourne in 2010, then waited 16 more majors to surpass that level by reaching that US Open final. The long wait didn鈥檛 bother him. Besides, his 10 attempts to reach the Australian final equaled an Open era record held by 1980 runner-up Kim Wawrick.
Cilic was under pressure early against Edmund and had to fend off break points in the opening game. He held and quickly got on top in the first set and, after maintaining his composure in a nervy second-set tiebreaker, quickly established a break in the third set.
鈥淚 think in that second set, I was just a little up and down with my game. I wasn鈥檛 getting enough returns back to put pressure on him in his service games,鈥 Cilic said. 鈥淚 noticed that in the third game in third set, when I broke him, he just let a couple balls go past him. ... I was seeing with this movement he was a little bit restricted so I just tried to move the ball around.鈥
Cilic didn鈥檛 face another break point after the opening game and took advantage of his experience, while Edmund got heated in his first major semifinal match, arguing with the chair umpire over a call in the fifth game of the second set and demanding the tournament supervisor come onto court to explain the ruling. It just delayed the inevitable.
鈥淲ell, obviously just disappointed I lost, but yeah, I mean, it鈥檚 been a really good couple of weeks for me,鈥 Edmund said. 鈥淛ust got the experience of going deep in a slam for the first time and all the stuff that comes with it. Playing a couple matches on Rod Laver.
鈥淥bviously disappointed right now, but can be very happy with the way I鈥檝e gone about things. Played a lot of tough matches. Won some tough matches. Beat good players,鈥 the Brit, who was struggling with injury, said.
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