Djokovic fights back to defeat battling Cilic

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  • Never giving up: Djokovic trailed Cilic two sets to one but still triumphed.

    It was a tense day at the All England Club yesterday.

    Andy Murray had followed Rafael Nadal out of Wimbledon, and Novak Djokovic was trailing Marin Cilic by two sets to one while in his match, as Roger Federer went down a set to Stan Wawrinka.

    Had Djokovic and Federer lost, it would have been the first time since the 2004 French Open that none of the ‘Big Four’ would have featured in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam.

    Luckily for Djokovic, the Serb found some inner strength to turn things around against the big-hit­ting Cilic and defeat the Croat 6-1, 3-6, 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-2 to reach his 23rd Grand Slam semi-final.

    “You go through difficult mo­ments, especially when you’re two sets to one down and playing in the quarters of a Grand Slam. It gets very emo­tional,” said Djokovic. “You’re fighting on the court and you try to be mentally strong and find that inner strength that can help you in those moments.”

    Cilic saved 12 of 19 break points against Djokovic, who said the noise coming from Centre court – where Murray was losing to Djokovic's opponent in the next round, Grigor Dimitrov – was distracting.

    “Both of us thought it was too much,” said Djokovic of the noise.

    “But it is what it is. It’s kind of strange to feel so much noise coming from Centre Court but the crowd gets into it.

    “I said to the chair umpire ‘let’s just stop the match, put it live on the big screen, and let’s watch it till they’re done. It’s going to be better for all of us’.”

    On his part, Cilic was proud of his time at Wimbledon, where he beat the likes of Tomas Berdych en route to his first quarter-final at the competition.

    “I’m very happy with these 10 days. I played very good tennis, maybe in some matches the best ever, so I’m very satisfied with that and am very positive for my next tourna­ments,” said Cilic.

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