Murray Digs Deep To Defeat Cilic

© Getty ImagesAndy Murray advances to the US Open semi-finals for a second straight year.

World No. 4 Andy Murray clawed back from a set and 5-1 down in his US Open quarter-final match to defeat Croatian Marin Cilic 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-2, 6-0 on Wednesday at Flushing Meadows.

With his victory, the British No. 1 became the fourth player to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, to be held from 5-12 November at The O2 in London.

Read: Murray To Return To London

Murray fell behind early in his eighth career meeting against the 12th-seeded Cilic, in a match that was moved from Arthur Ashe Stadium to Louis Armstrong due to rain delays. He lost serve four times in the first two sets, including his opening service game.

“I didn’t start too well,” admitted Murray, who had three winners to 11 unforced errors in the opening set. “He started off well. He was playing close to the baseline.

“I have always found that court tricky to play on. I have had a lot of tough matches on it. It took me a while to get used to it. I think when the conditions slowed down a bit and started to get a bit darker, that helped me.”

The third seed denied Cilic’s two attempts to serve out the second set, going on a five-game run from 5-1 down. “He got nervous towards the end of that set once I got one of the breaks back, which helped me,” said Murray. “And then from 5-all in the second set I played a great match after that.”

He broke Cilic five more times over the final two sets, winning 11 straight games to close out the win in exactly three hours.

The 25-year-old Murray advances to the US Open semi-finals for a second straight year, and will play World No. 7 Tomas Berdych for a place in the championship match.

"He's a huge, huge hitter of the ball," said Murray of his next opponent. "Even if you want to dictate points and be aggressive, he can take that away from you because he's such a powerful guy. You need to be smart against him. You need to use good variation and try not and give him the same ball over and over, because he likes that."

Murray reached his first Grand Slam final in 2008 at Flushing Meadows (l. to Federer). 

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