The fifth seeded Scot remains on course to be the first British man to win at the Australian Open since Fred Perry in 1934 and the first male Briton to win any Grand Slam since Perry won Wimbledon 74 years ago.

After his defeat in the US Open final to Roger Federer in 2008, is now the first British man to reach first to reach two Grand Slam finals in the Open era and the first to make the final in Australia since John Lloyd in 1977.

After losing the opening set, the first Murray had dropped in the entire tournament, he fought back strongly to overcome 14th seed Cilic, who defeated Murray in straight sets at last year's US Open.

Murray said: "I started going for my shots a little bit more, he was playing right close to the baseline.

"Cilic played three five-set matches and made it so tough for me and fought until the end."

"I'm really look forward to the final now, I'm feeling good."

Murray will face either world number on Roger Federer of Switzerland or France's Jo Wilfried Tsonga, who play their semi-final tomorrow.

In the first set Murray was broken twice.

He fought back from love-40 down in the fifth game only for Cilic to take the protracted game when the Scot hit a forehand long.

The Croatian was running Murray around the court as he dominated the early stages of the match with his booming forehand.

And the 21-year-old broke Murray for the second time to love to wrap up the opening set in 51 minutes.

The momentum was with Cilic at that stage and Murray became more animated as he chastised himself for not moving around the court.

But he grabbed a break in the fifth game of the second set that owed everything to his athleticism.



Murray first ran down a net cord and, when Cilic shovelled a lob over him, he somehow made enough ground to allow him to flick a forehand past his stunned rival.

The fifth seed pushed for another break but Cilic bailed himself out with some big serving before Murray served out the set comfortably with a forehand down the line, wrapping it up 6-4 to level the match.

Cilic had been taken to five sets in three of his five matches and, when he started to show signs of fatigue, Murray sensed it and broke in the third game of the third set. Cilic, however, produced a stunning forehand cross-court winner as he immediately hit back.

Murray stayed patient and was content to run his opponent around and, as Cilic's forehand grew weary, he started to spray his groundstrokes.

It cost the Croatian a break in the seventh game and Murray then served out to win the set 6-4 and move one set away from his second grand slam final.

Murray now had the wind in his sails, and there was a little Cilic could do to stop the fifth seed.

Two more breaks helped Murray take a 5-1 lead in the fourth, and two games later he was serving for the match.

With victory in his sight and no sign of any nerves, a long return from Cilic eventually handed the Briton the set 6-2 and a place in the final.