Paris, June 1 (IANS): Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer failed to reach the men's singles quarterfinals of the French Open for the first time since 2004 losing in a five-set clash here Sunday to Latvia's Ernests Gulbis.
The fourth seed was broken in his first serve game of the fifth set which eventually led to his 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 2-6, 6-4, 3-6 loss. Gulbis, seeded 18th, will face sixth seed Czech Tomas Berdych, who beat John Isner 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, in the quarterfinals, reports Xinhua.
Federer was 40-15 ahead on his service game when he led 5-3 in the second set but could not finish, only to see Gulbis claw back to break him. Gulbis came back to win the tie-break and broke serve twice to move into the lead after the third.
Federer responded by taking the fourth set but he slipped to 0-40 on his first service game of the decider and after saving two break points, hammered the third wide. Then he just could not recover from the deficit.