Andy Murray's irresistible run at the Australian Open has continued on Thursday night at Melbourne Park, the Scot now just one win from Grand Slam glory after recovering from a set down to see off Croatian Marin Cilic and advance to Sunday night's final.
The 22-year-old No.5 seed had breezed through to the last four without dropping a set but that all changed when he surrendered his serve twice in the opening set and found himself chasing for the first time at the tournament.
But Murray, who is seeking to become the first British male to win a Grand Slam title since Fred Perry's success at the US Open 74 years ago, fought back brilliantly to carve out a 3-6 6-4 6-4 6-2 win as Cilic's taxing campaign in the earlier rounds finally took a toll.
The 14th seed had three times been extended the distance in the tournament, by young Aussie Bernard Tomic in the second round, by Argentine Juan Martin del Potro in the fourth round and by American Andy Roddick in the quarter-finals.
But having also needed four sets to win his third-round clash with Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, Cilic finally ran out of gas after spending 18 hours on court leading into his clash with Murray, who had been in action for only 10 hours.
Murray may have taken longer to get going this time as Cilic took the fight up to him in the first hour of the contest but he warmed to his task as the 182-minute match wore on, with Cilic's 54 unforced errors to Murray's 29 proving critical to the result.
Murray can now put his feet up and await Friday's blockbuster second semi-final between world No.1 Roger Federer, who beat him in his only previous Grand Slam final at the US Open in 2008, and French 10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Murray boasts a winning record against Federer though, having won six of their 10 meetings, although the 15-time major winner has triumphed in the two most recent outings, while against Tsonga he leads 2-1 overall.
But Tsonga did stun Murray in the first round at Melbourne Park two years ago as he made it all the way to his first Grand Slam final before going down in four sets against Serbian Novak Djokovic in the decider.
After Cilic held serve following some nervous moments in the second game of the match it was the Croatian who made the first big move when he broke in the fifth game and after again surviving pressure on his serve in the sixth game a second break to Cilic in the ninth sealed the set.
But while Murray faced further tests of his serve in the second game of the second set the match turned on an amazing forehand down the line that the Scot played after desperately chasing down a Cilic lob, the break that it brought with it was all Murray needed to level the match.
Murray looked well on top when he broke again in the third game of the third set only for Cilic to immediately hit back but the seventh game would prove decisive as Cilic gave up his serve again and Murray forged to a two-sets-to-one lead.
Any hope Cilic had of fighting back into the match looked gone when he was broken yet again in the third game of the fourth set and Murray slammed the door shut when he broke again in the fifth game before serving his way into the decider, putting the stamp on the victory by bending the ball around the net in the final game into the open court for a clean winner.