Cilic in top form ahead of Aust Open semi

The retirement of No.1 seed Rafael Nadal may have eased Marin Cilic’s passage to the Australian Open semi-finals, but the Croatian is no less delighted with his form.

The No.6 seed played some scintillating tennis in Tuesday night’s quarter-final against the Spaniard who succumbed to a leg issue with Cilic leading 3-6 6-3 6-7 (7-5) 6-2 2-0.

“I’m extremely pleased with my own game,” Cilic said.

“Even in these other matches before this one, I played great tennis. Very, very high level.

“It was a little bit unfortunate for me to lose that tiebreak.

“After that, I felt I made a good mental decision that I want to lift up a little bit with my game just with intensity, try to forget about that third set, and especially at the beginning of the fourth bring up my energy and intensity.

“Overall from that moment, end of the third until end of the match, I was hitting the ball unbelievably well.”

The 2014 US Open winner will return to the semi-finals at Melbourne Park for the first time since 2010 when he lost to Andy Murray in four sets.

He will meet British surprise packet Kyle Edmund after he upset No.3 seed Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-4.

“Kyle has had amazing run here … has had a lot of tough matches, played great tennis,” Cilic said.

“He’s also very entertaining to watch. Big hitter, great serve, great forehand. Plays great on the hard courts.

“For me a big focus is to continue with my own game.

“I cannot influence him much across the net, but I’m going to try to take care of things on my part of the court. Hopefully I’m going to have another great match.”

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