WIMBLEDON, England — At the 2014 United States Open, the only man standing between Roger Federer and another major final, another chance to add to his 17 Grand Slam titles, was Marin Cilic.
Rafael Nadal was not in the tournament. Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic had lost by the time Federer and Cilic stepped on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court for their semifinal.
Cilic blew Federer off the court that September day, winning straight sets, and went on to claim his first major championship.
It seemed as if history was going to repeat itself Wednesday in the Wimbledon quarterfinals, the first match between Federer and Cilic since then.
For the first two sets on Centre Court, Cilic was once again bombarding Federer, hitting 12 aces among his 23 winners. He won 87 percent of his first-serve points. It took only 1 hour 15 minutes to put Federer into a two-set hole.
But Federer conjured a vintage performance, rallying to win, 6-7 (4), 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (9), 6-3. In doing so, he set the record for Grand Slam singles victories with his 307th and tied Jimmy Connors for the record for Wimbledon victories at 84.
In the semifinals, Federer, the No. 3 seed, will face sixth-seeded Milos Raonic, who ousted Sam Querrey, 6-4, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.
At 3-3 in the third set, it seemed all but over for Federer. He was down, 0-40, on his serve, facing three break points. He saved them all, and then broke Cilic in the next game when Cilic double-faulted.
All of a sudden, Federer was serving for the set, an opportunity he did not waste. He started the game with an ace and ended it with a backhand winner.
Federer lived dangerously in the fourth set, saving a match point when serving at 4-5 and another at 5-6.
That set the stage for a dramatic tiebreaker. Federer got a break with Cilic serving at 3-4, when he challenged a return that was called long. The video review found it to be in by a sliver, giving Federer a 5-3 lead and two serves on his racket.
He gained two set points at 6-4 and blew the first with a tight forehand that went long. Cilic hit an ace to save the second.
Cilic, the No. 9 seed, got a third match point, leading, 7-6, and getting a second serve from Federer. But he dumped the return into the net.
Federer’s serve was now in a groove. He did not face a break point in the fifth set, hit seven aces and won 84 percent of his first-serve points.Federer had two more set points that he could not convert before finally putting the set away.
Cilic saved one break point at 2-3, but Federer gained two more at 3-4 with forehand winners, converting the second to serve for the match.
With his 26th and 27th aces, he completed the comeback.
Goran Ivanisevic, Cilic’s coach, agonized in a Centre Court box, his beard and hair speckled with gray — and probably getting grayer with each match point Cilic frittered away.
It has been 15 years since Ivanisevic won Wimbledon, but his brand of big-serving, big-man tennis was alive and well on Court 1, where Raonic and Querrey were competing for a spot in the semifinals.
Raonic’s serve hit 140 miles per hour, and he won 87 percent of his first-serve points, facing only two break points in the match. In a nod to the influence of John McEnroe, who joined Raonic’s team a few weeks ago, Raonic also served and volleyed 42 times, winning 33 of those points.
“That was a part of the motivation to bring him along to help, was to improve that aspect of how much I can implement it in my game and how to use it and what the right moments are,” Raonic said of McEnroe.
Raonic, a 25-year-old Canadian, called his victory Wednesday the best match he had played in the tournament.
He is still seeking his first Grand Slam final. He said his “simple goal” for this tournament was to win it.
Friday’s semifinal will be a rematch of a 2014 semifinal here, which Federer won, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Raonic also reached the semifinals of the Australian Open this year, losing to Andy Murray in five sets.
“I think I’m definitely a step further along,” Raonic said. “I think my attitude, my mental prowess on court has definitely improved. Hopefully that makes a difference.”
Federer has won nine of their 11 meetings, but Raonic won the last one, in the final in Brisbane in January.
“I’ll probably look at that one from the beginning of this year, what I did well,” Raonic said. “Probably from the mental side, I’ll look at what I wouldn’t want to repeat from two years ago.”
Tomas Berdych advanced to his sixth Grand Slam semifinal, defeating Lucas Pouille, 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-2. The 10th-seeded Berdych, 30, reached the Wimbledon final in 2010, when he lost to Nadal.
On Friday, he will face the winner of the quarterfinal between the second-seeded Murray and No. 12 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
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