MARIN Cilic wakes up this morning dreaming of becoming the first Croatian winner of the Wimbledon men's singles title since Goran Ivanisevic. The No 7 seed overcame Andy Murray's conqueror Sam Querrey yesterday by a 6-7 (6), 6-4, 7-6 (6), 7-5 scoreline to become only the second player from the Balkan nation to grace an SW19 singles final and he said last night that watching Ivanisevic win here back in 2001 was still indelibly etched upon his memory. Cilic, who is now working with Murray's former coach Jonas Bjorkman, was mentored by Ivanisevic for a three-year spell which saw him land the US Open title, their time together being brought to a close immediately after last year's Wimbledon. And who did he beat in that US Open semi final? Roger Federer.

"Everyone knows where they were when Goran played here," said CIlic. "I was in a tennis camp, tennis summer camp, close to my hometown. I was in a big group of children, and we all watched Goran. It was a big celebration. At that time I was still a kid, not even 13 years old. I was just enjoying to play tennis. I've not really spoken to him about it. But I've seen all the celebrations from him many times on TV and on YouTube. I know most of the stuff."

Rather than a supreme showdown between Andy Murray and Rafa Nadal, the Centre Court crowd witnessed a semi-final slug fest between Querrey and Cilic but the margins were as fine as you might have expected them to be. While Cilic had won all four of their previous meetings, three of them on grass, twice at this venue their matches had gone the distance, with the 2012 win which the Croat took 17-15 in the decider lasting comfortably beyond five hours.

Querrey took the form he showed against Murray into this one, displaying soft hands at the net as well as booming serves and forehands. He even pounced to take the first set on a tie-break, but his hopes of becoming the first American SW19 male finalist since Andy Roddick in 2009 faded as three back-to-back five set matches started to take their toll. A solitary service break for Cilic in the second set saw this match start to turn, and it was the Croat who held his nerve in the third set tie-break before finding an extra service break in the fourth. "It's been a fun run," said Querrey.