Cilic outlasts Roddick to storm into Oz Open semis

Melbourne: Marathon man Marin Cilic became the first Croatian to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open with a gripping five-set victory over American Andy Roddick on Tuesday.

Cilic, at 21 the youngest of the eight quarter-finalists, wore down the seventh seeded Roddick, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3 in three hours 50 minutes on Rod Laver Arena. His reward is a semi-final against either defending champion Rafael Nadal of British fifth seed Andy Murray. "Today was a tough match mentally and for Murray or Nadal, it`s going to take also a lot of energy out of me," he said. "So we`ll see how I`m going to be able to survive. "I think the biggest thing is to try to recover as much as I can and to try to be ready so I can play at my level." It was another test of endurance for the 14th seeded Cilic, who has spent the longest time on court of all the remaining players in the draw at 18 hours eight minutes for his five matches. It was his third five-set match of the tournament. "Today was not easy. I was a little bit tired from the matches before," he said. "The first set took a lot of energy out of me because it was not only a physical battle but a mental one as well." Cilic looked as if his challenge was fading when Roddick fought back to level at two sets all after the Croatian had claimed the opening two sets. But he found his second wind in the gruelling deciding set to finish off Roddick, who was bidding for his fifth semi-final appearance at the Australian Open. "I was a bit surprised because he was breaking me pretty easily in those two sets," he said. "When I got out of it I started to serve better. I was mentally fresher." Cilic remains unbeaten this year at 10-0 after defending his title at Chennai on his way to Australia. It was his second consecutive quarter-final appearance at a Grand Slam after losing to eventual champion Juan Martin del Potro at last year`s US Open. Yet again it was more heartbreak for Roddick as he fell short in his bid to add to his sole Grand Slam title from the 2003 US Open. Roddick is the last American male Grand Slam winner, the longest major title drought for the proud tennis nation. But he was not too disappointed, given a sore shoulder. "To be able to push it and have a shot, I thought it was a pretty good effort," Roddick said. "I hit the ball about as well as I could throughout the whole match. I still hit the ball pretty well in the fifth." Roddick had a medical timeout after the first set to seek treatment for the painful right shoulder. "I felt it a little bit the other night, the cold weather, trying to hit through and I didn`t hit yesterday," he said. "I felt pretty good today in warmup and in the first couple games and then I aggravated something." He has a losing five-set career record of 12-15, while Cilic is 8-5. The young Croat prevailed even though he struggled on serve with his first serve percentage down to 50 percent, but he out-aced the power-serving Roddick 20 to 15. He broke Roddick`s serve five times and dropped his six times. Bureau Report