Andy Murray reaches his second grand slam final after a 4 set win over 14th seed Croatian Marin Cilic.

It took Murray over an hour and one phenominal point to spark the Scot into life as eventually won through 3-6 6-4 6-4 6-2.

After early chances in the first set to break the Croat’s serve , Murray seemed to waver in confidence, he was subsequently broken twice as Cilic claimed the first set. The start of second set was much the same with Murray continuing to struggle on his own serve and Cilic dominating the points.

With the score at 2-2 and Cilic serving, Murray showed signs of better play when he carved out his first break point in a while, what followed was probably the point of that tournament. Cilic fired a back hand into the  top net and it dropped on Murray’s sides of the court, Murray somehow managed to retrieve it before an exchange of volleys seen Cilic lob the Scot. Murray chased it down and  with his back to the court produced a squash style shot that flew by a gobsmacked Cilic rooted at the spot.

Andy Murray will now face either Jo Wilfred Tsonga or Roger Federer in the final, the second semi final will take place tomorrow and the final on Sunday.

In reaching his second grand slam final he becomes the first Britsh Man since John Lloyd to reach the Australian Open final in 1977 and becomes the first British man in the open era to reach two grand slam finals.

Andy Murray has just recorded his third win over Rafael Nadal and in doing so reaches his first Australian Open semi final. This will be his third career grand slam final and as for his semi final opponent Marin Cilic this will be the Croat’s first grand slam semi final, in fact Cilic is the first ever player from Croatia to reach the semi final stage at the Melbourne event.

Marin Cilic is currently the world number 14 and is also seeded 14th for this event, born in the Bosnian village of Medjugorje when it is was still part of Yugoslavia, this 21 year old now flying the flag of Croatia turned pro the same year as Andy Murray.

His progress since turning pro in 2005 until the last 6 months had not been as stellar as is other young counterparts. World number 3 Novak Djokovic, world number 5 Juan Martin Del Potro and his opponent on Thursday world number 4 Andy Murray have all been mixing at the very top of the game for a few years now.

Cilic comes into the match on a 9 match winning streak having won the tournament in Chennai, India prior to the Australian Open, it was the Croats fouth ATP title after success in New haven in 2008 and Chennai and Zagreb in 2009.

Murray and Cilic have met 4 times with Murray holding a 3-1 advantage over Cilic, though crucially perhaps the latest match was a surprise straight sets victory 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 for Cilic in the 4th round of the US Open. The shock victory against Murray who was the 2nd favorite for the title and the previous year’s finalist was seen as a major major upset and heaped heavy criticism against Murray.

Since that win though, cilic has been showing signs that, that win at the US open could well have been the begining of his rise to the top of the game, he dispatched another top 10 player Andy Roddick in the quarter finals here and out matched US open champion Juan Martin Del Potro in the 4th round.

For Murray though the semi-final against Cilic will give the Scot the perfect chance to revenge that US open defeat and reach his second career grand slam final.

Murray is favorite with the bookmakers.

Andy Murray will continue his 2010 Australian open journey against 33rd seed American John Isner on Sunday. The match will be first match on the Rod Laver arena at 11am (midnight UK time).

So far in the 2010 Ozzy open Murray has yet to drop a set and in fact is the only man to have not dropped a set so far – he’s reached the 4th round on 2 previous occasions, losing to Rafael Nadal in 2007 and Fernando Verdasco in 2009.

This time though he is not taking on a Spaniard, his opponent tomorrow will be all 6ft 9ins of American John Isner. The 24 year old from Greensboro, North Carolina is currently at a career-high ranking of 28 and the new American number two after overtaking Sam Querrey.

Reaching the 4th round has equaled the American’s grand slam best after he reached the 4th round of the US open last year after 6 consecutive 1st round defeats in his previous grand slam attempts. Though we shouldn’t read too much into this when we look at his recent the big serving Isner has just won his maiden ATP title in Auckland and in the last round he upset 12 seed Gael Monfils and has served 81 aces so far in 3 rounds.

Murray and Isner have never played, though Murray’s record against Americans is pretty good, in the last 3 years he has lost just once in 17 matches – The match he did lose though was a crucial one to Andy Roddick in the semi final of last years Wimbledon.

Bookmakers see this as Andy Murray’s toughest test so far, though he is still odds on favorite to reach the quarter final for the first time. Betfair as usual has the best odds available on both a Murray win and Isner win.

Andy Murray’s thoughts on the 4th round match.

Playing against someone like him is so dangerous. It might come down to a few points. I’ll have to step up to the plate. He’s very similar to Karlovic, None of the guys really enjoy playing against him. He’s a bit better from the back of the court than Karlovic, but Karlovic probably volleys better. It will be a really tough match.

John Isner’s thoughts on the upcoming match,

It’s going to be a challenge to hold serve. That’s going to be my number one focus, and taking it from there, Andy’s such a really, really good player. I’m going to have to play really, really well to have a chance out there. He’s one of the fittest guys on tour. He really can do anything. He can play offence. He can play defence. He can mix it up really well. He’s one of the top favourites for the title I would guess. Him, Federer, Nadal, Del Potro, Djokovic. Andy might even be the favourite. Hopefully I can put an end to his run, but it’s going to be a tough task.

The 2010 Austrailian Open has now reached the last 16 stage, with all the major contenders for the title still in the event.

From start of the event until now Roger Federer has been the favorite to lift his 16th grand slam title, his odds had been slightly higher at the start of the week, but the best you’ll find now is at Betfair with 53/20 (3.65 decimal).

The second favorite is where the changes have been taking place, at the start of the week Rafael Nadal was second favorite and Andy Murray third, however after the first three rounds, they have switched places with Andy Murray now the second favorite and Nadal third. The best odds you’ll get on Murray is 5/1 and Nadal 32/5, both those at Betfair. Murray and Nadal though are scheduled to meet in quarter finals in the bottom quarter.

2008 winner Novak Djokovic is 4th favorite with inform player Nikolay Davydenko fifth favorite. Davydenko on course to meet Federer in the quarter finals.

Current US open champion Juan Martin Del Potro and 2009 Wimbledon finalist are 7th and 8th favorites and they are both on course to meet in their quarters final.

Best outside shot has to be Marn Cilic, who plays Del potro next and 400/1 outside Ivo Karlovic who meets Nadal in next round.

It was only for a week after all that Andy Murray lost his no.4 place in the world rankings to Juan Del Potro, though it was during the week that the 2010 Austrailian open seedings were done, which means Murray will be seeded 5th in the draw making it likely he would face either Nadal, Federer, Djokovic or Del Poto in the quarter finals.

Murrays switch with Del Potro is the only change in rankings among the top 16, the only other top 20 change was tommy hass and  David Ferrer swapping 17th and 18th place.

The Monday after the Australian should see the ranking shaken up once again.