Marin Cilic beat Kyle Edmund 6-2, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 on Thursday to reach his first-ever Australian Open final.

The sixth-seeded Croatian became only the second player outside the ‘Big Four’ (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray) to reach the Australian Open final in the past 10 years (Stan Wawrinka won the tournament in 2014).

Cilic, who hit 32 winners, said his British opponent had struggled towards the end of their semi-final.

‘I noticed in the third game of the third set when I broke him, he let a couple of balls go. I was seeing he was a bit restricted and I tried to move him around.

‘He’s playing great tennis. But he played a couple of tough five-setters and a four-setter here, and definitely it left some scars on his body. But he has a bright future and we will see him around a lot.’

Cilic, who will rise to a career-high world ranking of No 3 after this tournament, will meet Roger Federer or Hyeon Chung in Sunday’s final.