MELBOURNE, Australia — Marin Cilic is in exclusive company at the Australian Open.
With his 6-2, 7-6 (4), 6-2 semifinal win over 49th-ranked Kyle Edmund, Cilic became only the second man from outside the “Big Four” to reach the final at the season-opening major in a decade.
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have dominated the men’s finals since 2009, with only 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka breaking the quartet’s court occupation in the championship match.
Cilic, 29, the first Croatian to make the final at Melbourne Park, could face the founding member of the “Big Four” in the final Sunday. That’s if Federer, the defending champion, could get past Hyeon Chung in a match that was set to begin at 12:30 a.m. PST Friday.
Cilic lost to Federer in last year’s Wimbledon final, in which he was injured and struggling at the end. This time, he has held off No. 10 Pablo Carreño Busta and top-ranked Rafael Nadal and thinks, with two days to rest before the final, he’ll be in better shape.
“I’m feeling really, really good physically,” Cilic said. “I played a great tournament so far with my level of tennis. I improved it comparing to end of the last year. I’m playing much, much more aggressive — feeling really excited about the final, too.”
It’ll be a third major final for Cilic, who beat Federer in the semifinals at the 2014 U.S. Open before winning his breakthrough Grand Slam title.
•For the second time in the tournament, Simona Halep faced match points and knew one mistake would mean an exit from the Australian Open and the likely loss of her No. 1 ranking.
For the second time in just more than a week, she attacked rather than take the safe approach. The 26-year-old Romanian saved two match points and needed four of her own against 2016 champion Angelique Kerber before winning 6-3, 4-6, 9-7 in the semifinals.
“I try to be very calm, but today I was like a roller coaster, up and down,” Halep said. “But I didn’t give up, not even a ball. I’m really proud of myself, actually.”
Halep will face No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki in the final Saturday, with one of them guaranteed to win a first Grand Slam title. The winner also will be No. 1 when the next rankings are released. Wozniacki, who beat Elise Mertens 6-3, 7-6 (2) in 1½ hours in the first semifinal, hasn’t held the top ranking in six years.
•There will be no Bay Area representative in men’s doubles.
The sixth-seeded American team of Bob and Mike Bryan, who went to Stanford, lost to the 11th-seeded Colombia team of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 7-6 (1), 7-5.
Also, Cal alum Ben McLachlan of Japan and his German partner Jan-Lennard Struff, an unseeded team, lost 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (4) to the seventh-seeded team of Austria’s Oliver Marach and Croatia’s Mate Pavic.
Women’s final
Who: No. 1 Simona Halep vs. No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki
When: 12:30 a.m. Saturday
TV: ESPN