Kyle Edmund knocked out of Australian Open semi-final by Marin Cilic

Great Britain's Kyle Edmund is out of the Australian Open after losing to Croatian Marin Cilic 6-2 7-6 (7/4) 6-2 in the semi-finals in Melbourne.

Should Edmund have overcome his opponent he would only have been on the fourth British man to reach a Grand Slam final since 1968. Edmund's ranking has soared in the last few weeks, rising from 49th to 25th in the world thanks to his fine form in Australia.

Cilic's tactic was simple, keep the ball away from Edmund's big weapon, and he was doing it very well. It was the sixth seed who showed his forehand prowess to break again and leave the young British player with a lot of work to do.

Edmund had two chances to break the sixth seed's serve in the opening game and, had he done so, perhaps the outcome could have been different. But Edmund struggled with a hip problem and was ultimately well beaten, although he never stopped fighting.

Cilic, speaking afterwards in his on-court interview, said: "In the second set I was up and down with my game, not getting enough returns back and he started to serve quite well and release his forehands.

"But I just stayed mentally very focused and tried to play every single point. It was extremely crucial in the tie-break to keep that pressure."

The 29-year-old predicted big things for Edmund, saying: "He's playing great tennis. The last couple of years he's improved a lot and started great this year. He had an extremely tough run to the semis, a couple of five-setters and a couple of four-setters as well.

"Definitely it left some scars on his body. I can feel that too, but definitely he's got a bright future in the game and we're going to be seeing him a lot."