Marin Cilic of Croatia successfully defeated sixth seed Tomas Berdych 6-2 6-4 7-6 (4) becoming the first Croatian to reach the U.S. Open semi-finals since his coach Goran Ivanisevic in 1996.

Cilic missed last year's US Open after he was banned for four months due to doping. He said "I mean, it was a difficult period. I didn't know when I'm going to start back. But it was also a good period for me. I matured a bit more and I was working day after day."

He added "Of course it was a huge motivation for me when I came back. I felt that I was more happy. I was enjoying much more the tennis court and still working hard for it."

"I felt tougher with myself in preparations and during the matches just clearer with my goals."

It is clear that Cilic has been working overtime ever since his return to the court. He has won events in Zagreb and Delray Beach while reaching the final in the Rotterdam and his 45 match wins this season are second only to world number three Roger Federer (53).

He commented "Even though I had great success beginning of the year, I felt that I started to play really well somewhere from French Open. Since then I think the things are in good place for me and moving really, really good with everything."

Although Cilic has seen the positive side that he had gained during his exile, he remains dejected that he was found guilty of doping over a medicine given by his mother. He said "It angered me how all the process went because it was not fair to me."

He continued "It wouldn't be fair to any tennis player. So that was just very bad memories. But, you know, when you're against big organizations you are small ants. You can't do much. So I just accepted it. When I came back to the tennis court I erased it from my memory. I just used the positive parts."

Cilic will be facing either five-times U.S. Open champion Federer and Frenchman Gael Monfils for the semi finals.