Cilic reaches first Wimbledon final

Croatia’s Marin Cilic reached his first Wimbledon final with a four-set win over American 24th seed Sam Querrey on Centre Court. Seventh seed Cilic won 6-7 (6-8) 6-4 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 in two hours and 56 minutes, and will next face Roger Federer or Tomas Berdych.

Cilic, 28, is into his second major final after winning the 2014 US Open.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Cilic, the second Croat to reach the men’s final after Goran Ivanisevic won in 2001.

“The way this tournament has unfolded I’ve been playing really great tennis.”

Querrey, 29, had played three successive five-set matches to reach his first Grand Slam semi-final, and almost forced a fourth before Cilic finally saw off the American’s challenge.

Both men had more than 100 aces to their name heading into the semi-finals, and it was the Croat who had more success in breaking down the big serve.

Cilic won more than twice as many points on return and earned 14 break points to Querrey’s three, but the American saved 10 and was two service holds from taking it to a fifth set.

He edged the first set from 4-1 down in the tie-break before Cilic earned the first break of the match at 3-3 on his way to levelling at one set all.

The match was over two hours old before two loose shots from Querrey – a backhand error followed by a forehand into the net – separated the pair in the third set tie-break.

However, Cilic played a fine game to level at 4-4 with a drop volley and an attacking return of serve, and avoided the need for a third tie-break when he earned two match points at 6-5 and found a forehand winner on the second.