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It’s an unexpected semi-final at the Australian Open, but upsets aplenty will give Marin Cilic a chance to qualify for another grand slam final against workhorse Kyle Edmund. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 7:30pm (AEDT).
One can’t help but remember Cilic’s last trip to a grand slam final. It was Wimbledon, 2017 and he was smacked by a resurgent Roger Federer to the tune of 6-1, 6-3, 6-4.
It wasn’t even close, but intriguingly, it could be the exact same match-up in this year’s Australian Open, with the other semi-final seeing Federer go in as favourite against Korean Hyeon Chung.
Cilic will come into the match with Edmund in some sensational form, but he won’t be able to take the Briton lightly, who has got some big scalps at the Open.
After a difficult start to the season in Pune, Cilic has been superb down under. He has been far from clinical, something which must improve, but he has fought hard and come back from some very tricky situations.
That includes four-set matches against Vasek Pospisil and Pablo Carreno-Busta in the first round and quarter-finals respectively, before he went past an injured Rafael Nadal on Tuesday.
While Nadal had a two sets to one lead at a point, his body gave out on him and he eventually retired from the match 2-0 down in the fifth set.
It’s opened a golden opportunity for Cilic to make another grand slam final after the Croatian won the US Open in 2014.
Getting past Edmund will be far from straightforward, though. The 23-year-old is on the rise, but hasn’t been able to make the junction to elite level before this tournament.
He has fought hard for his wins, taking five sets to beat Kevin Anderson and Nikoloz Basilashvili, as well as four in each of his last two matches against Andreas Seppi and world No.3 Grigor Dimitrov.
All of his matches have had impressive displays of offence missed with defence and for the most part, he has been serving at over 70 per cent.
If he can maintain that, hold his serve and then put the Croatian under pressure, then Edmund is in with a shot at making a grand slam final.
Prediction
This is a tough one. Edmund isn’t going to go away without a fight and will probably take it all the way, but Cilic should have enough weapons and confidence to get it done.
Cilic in four sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of this men’s quarter-final from 7:30pm (AEDT) and don’t forget to add a comment below.