Sam Querrey defended the state of men's tennis in the United States and hopes his run to the Wimbledon semi-finals will lead to many of his compatriots following suit.

The world number 28 stunned the Centre Court crowd by outlasting defending champion Andy Murray over five sets on Wednesday, setting up a last-four meeting with Marin Cilic.

Querrey, seeded 24th at the All England Club, twice recovered from a set down to advance 3-6 6-4 6-7 (4-7) 6-1 6-1 and reach the first grand slam semi-final of his career.

It marks the second successive year that Querrey has dumped out the holder, having overcome Novak Djokovic in the third round 12 months ago, and in beating Murray he became the first American man since Andy Roddick in 2009 to reach the last four of a major.

With the glory days of the likes of Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras in the past, American men's tennis has suffered something of a dip in recent years, and Querrey hopes his success can prove a turning point.

"I mean, American tennis isn't that bad. I know it kind of gets a bad rep. That's just because guys don't win majors," the 29-year-old said in a media conference.

"We've got four guys in the top 30, a great group of young guys. To be in the semis is great. Hopefully myself and the other guys up there can have more weeks like this.

"Hopefully, American tennis will get a little boost from this maybe, and other guys will gain some confidence, and we can just have more and more guys go deeper in slams."

Querrey was beaten by eventual runner-up Milos Raonic in the quarter-finals last year and admitted he doubted he would ever manage to go beyond that stage.

"Yeah, probably. I mean, last year definitely kind of gave me a new boost that I could do it. But there have been times in my career where I definitely thought, if I had to bet, am I going to make a semi, I probably would have gone no.

"Now that I made the quarters last year, and semis here, I'm feeling confident. I think I can go even a little further.

"I'm really proud. It's an exciting moment. Not many people get to play tennis professionally, let alone play at Wimbledon, play on Centre Court, play against Andy Murray. It's something that few people get to do, so it's really special."