MARIN Cilic still remembers where he was when Goran Ivanisevic won Wimbledon. Not yet a teenager, the 12-year-old watched his Croatian countryman serve his way to the 2001 title at a summer camp near his home town of Medjugorje, in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

His idol is no longer part of his entourage, the two men going their separate ways following a fruitful three-year partnership which harvested the 2014 US Open title, but Cilic - who now works with Andy Murray’s former coach Jonas Bjorkman - will still wake up tomorrow morning dreaming of following in his footsteps. The 29-year-old became only the second player from the Balkan nation to reach a singles final at SW19 when he was still standing at the end of an attritional contest with Andy Murray’s conqueror Sam Querrey of the USA by a 6-7 (6), 6-4, 7-6 (6), 7-5 scoreline.

He did so at the 11th attempt - more than any first time finalist in the Open Era - and is only given added encouragement by the fact that the man he overcame in the semi-finals of that maiden major win at Flushing Meadow was a certain Roger Federer. “Everyone knows where they were when Goran played here,” said Cilic. “I was in a tennis summer camp, close to my hometown. I was in a big group of children, and we all watched Goran. It was a big celebration. At that time I was still a kid, not even 13 years old. I was just enjoying to play tennis. I’ve not really spoken to him about it. But I’ve seen all the celebrations from him many times on TV and on YouTube. I know most of the stuff.”

Rather than a supreme showdown between Andy Murray and Rafa Nadal, the Centre Court crowd witnessed a semi-final slugfest but the margins were as fine as you might have expected. While Cilic had won all four of their previous meetings, twice at this venue their matches had gone the distance. There tended to be tie-breaks a plenty, while the 2012 win which the Croat took 17-15 in the decider lasting comfortably beyond five hours.

Querrey took the form he showed against Murray into this one, displaying soft hands at the net as well as booming serves and forehands. He even pounced to take the first set on a tie-break, when the pressure he was forcing saw the Croat miscue a couple of backhands. The first American SW19 male semi-finalist since Andy Roddick in 2009, this laid back Californian was an unlikely member of the last four, but he was making a decent fist of things. But perhaps three back-to-back five set matches on grass were starting to take their toll on him too. A solitary service break for Cilic in the second set saw this match start to turn, and it was the Croat who kept his nerve best in the thrid set breaker then found that crucial last service break when he needed it most.

“It’s been a fun run,” said Querrey. “I feel like I’ve really had some ups over the last year, and hopefully there are more of those to come as I get a little bit older.”

A statistical quirk, perhaps, but Cilic is the first No 7 seed to reach the final here in the Open Era. And of the four who have made it in all the slams, No 7 seed in fact has ever won a title. Perhaps it is Cilic’s lucky number. Even if logic might tell you that his number will be up in the final against Federer.