Murray reaches Australian Open final; Cilic in Top 10

World #5 Andy Murray reached his second career Grand Slam final by beating #14 seed Marin Cilic 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 in the first men’s singles semifinals of the 2010 Australian Open. He became the first British player to reach the championship match since 1977. Murray will be going for a historic win on Sunday that will make him the first British man to win the Australian Open in the Open era. His next opponent will be the winner of the other semifinal between world #1 Roger Federer and world #10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

With the win over Cilic, Murray is going for his first Grand Slam title. He reached the 2008 US Open final but was defeated by Federer. If Murray wins on Sunday, he will be ranked at #2 behind Federer when the new rankings come out next week. Murray held the #2 ranking last year but lack of strong results in the latter part of 2009 has pushed him down to #5 before the start of the Australian Open.

Cilic was playing his first ever grand slam semifinal. He is the first Croatian to reach the Australian Open semifinals. His previous best showing at a Grand Slam was reaching the quarterfinals of the 2009 US Open. He upset Murray in the fourth round of that tournament. By virtue of reaching the semifinals in the year’s first major, Cilic will enter the top ten for the first time in his career.

Murray is picked by many tennis observers to win the Australian Open in the past two years. He failed to fulfill expectations when he lost in the fourth round last year. This year though, he had the least effort in reaching the semifinals. He was the only player in both the men and the women’s singles draw to reach the last four without dropping a set. His first set loss against Cilic was the first set he dropped in the tournament.

In the championship match on Sunday, Murray will be facing an opponent who he leads in career head-to-head meetings. He is 6-4 against Federer, but lost to the Swiss in the only grand slam match they played in the 2008 US Open finals. He is also 2-1 against Tsonga, but like Federer, Murray lost to Tsonga in the only grand slam match they played in the first round of the 2008 Australian Open. With his current form though, Murray will fancy his chances in winning his first grand slam here. He’s just one match away.