Three of the biggest names in tennis, Roger Federer and sisters Venus and Serena Williams, crashed out at the quarter-final stage of the Olympics in a night of shocks yesterday.
Federer's year plumbed new depths when he lost to American James Blake, a player he had beaten eight times in a row, after torrential rain had delayed the start of the quarter-finals until late evening.
The Swiss top seed's game went totally haywire against Blake and he lost 6-4 7-6.
With news of Federer's shock defeat reverberating around the Olympic tennis complex, Serena Williams became the second of the night's big casualties when she lost to Russian fifth seed Elena Dementieva 3-6 6-4 6-3.
Then home favourite Li Na stole the show, out-hitting double Olympic champion Venus Williams in a sensational 7-5 7-5 victory that sparked wild celebrations on the floodlit Centre Court.
"Wow! You can't see this kind of crowd anywhere else. It helped me and pushed me a lot," Li told reporters.
"This is a present I give to the Beijing Olympic Games but I have no time to celebrate. I have more matches to go."
Federer had been banking on an Olympic gold medal to ease the pain of defeat by Spain's Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon final last month but when he needed the old spark to dig himself out of trouble, it was nowhere to be seen.
Blake said he sensed his chance from game one when the errors had already started flowing from Federer's racket.
"I always believed in myself," Blake, now just one victory away from a guaranteed medal, said.
"I'd lost to him eight, nine, 10, 50 times, I don't know how many, but I had the feeling it could be my day when Roger played a poor first game."
Not even a netcord when he served to stay in the match at 5-6 could save 12-times Grand Slam champion Federer, who will lose his no.1 ranking to Nadal on Monday.
Blake now plays Athens singles bronze medallist Fernando Gonazalez, who beat Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4 6-4.
Third seed Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, restored some order well past midnight when he beat France's Gael Monfils 4-6 6-1 6-4.
Predictions of a Williams monopoly of the gold and silver medals in Beijing were turned on their head as both produced erratic performances against inspired opposition.
Serena, playing in her first Olympic singles tournament despite winning doubles gold in Sydney eight years ago, appeared on course for victory when she powered through the opening set but her challenge evaporated.
Dementieva surged into a 5-0 lead in the final set and although her nerves began to fray as Williams mounted a late salvage operation, she hung on.
"It was a very exciting moment," Dementieva, looking to go one better than her silver in Sydney, told reporters.
"This is the biggest tournament for me this year."
She will face Vera Zvonareva in an all-Russian semi-final.
Men's QFs: Blake beat Federer 6-4 7-6; Gonzalez beat Mathieu 6-4 6-4; Nadal beat Melzer 6-0 6-4; Djokovic beat Monfils 4-6 6-1 6-4.