Roger Federer suffered his earliest defeat at the French Open for a decade yesterday when he lost to Latvian Ernests Gulbis in the fourth round but Novak Djokovic made light work of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to reach the quarter-finals in a flash.
The Swiss fourth seed, who won the title in 2009, seemed to have the match in his grasp against the unpredictable Gulbis but faded badly to lose 6-7(5) 7-6(3) 6-2 4-6 6-3.
World No.2 Djokovic destroyed local favourite Tsonga 6-1 6-4 6-1 to set up a meeting with eighth seed Milos Raonic of Canada, who advanced with an emphatic 6-3 6-3 6-3 victory over Spain’s Marcel Granollers.
Andy Murray lived to fight another day after a five-set thriller against Philipp Kohlschreiber and in the women’s singles fast-rising Canadian Eugenie Bouchard thrashed Angelique Kerber 6-1 6-2 to claim a quarter-final spot, crunching 30 winners in 52 dazzling minutes to stretch her winning run on clay to nine matches.
While Djokovic made it to his 20th consecutive grand slam quarter-final, it was the first time since 2004 that 32-year-old father of four Federer failed to reach the last eight in Paris. He has now fallen before that stage in three of his last four grand slam tournaments.
“Mentally I have already switched to the grass,” said Federer. “For me, it’s like, okay, claycourt season was fun, but we are moving on. Clay doesn’t need me anymore.”
Former world No.1 Federer, who became father to a second set of twins recently, looked a slightly forlorn figure as Gulbis turned around the match and the days when he was a near certainty to reach semi-finals appear to be over.
The 17-times grand slam champion was beaten in the second round at Wimbledon last year and the last 16 at the US Open although he did enjoy a semi-final run in Australia.
Federer never looked comfortable against Gulbis, who said earlier this week he was hoping to catch the “last-chance train” after under-achieving since reaching the quarter-finals of the French Open in 2008.
“It is the biggest win of my career. I had to win, I know how all of you love Roger but that’s sport,” world No.17 Gulbis said.
“I won tournaments in Marseille and Nice so hopefully Paris is the next one. I win, I win over some fans,” he added, looking ahead to his next match against sixth seeded Tomas Berdych who trounced John Isner 6-4 6-4 6-4.
The French crowd were hoping that 13th seed Tsonga would cheer them up, but Djokovic had other ideas. It took him 89 minutes to tear Tsonga apart, opening a 5-0 lead and never looking back, ending the ordeal on the first match point.
Murray reached the fourth round, winning 3-6 6-3 6-3 4-6 12-10 against Germany’s Kohlschreiber having re-started the match yesterday locked at 7-7 in the fifth after bad light stopped play the previous evening.
He will play Spain’s Fernando Verdasco next after he also returned to finish off Frenchman Richard Gasquet with ease.
With so many top seeds gone from the women’s draw 20-year-old Bouchard is now looking like a serious title contender.
The 18th seed, who reached the Australian Open semi-final this year, completely outclassed Kerber and after her first WTA title last week in Nuremberg she is flying high.
She will face 14th seed Carla Suarez Navarro after the Spaniard used her one-handed backhand to great effect to end the run of up-and-coming Croatian Ajla Tomljanovic with a 6-3 6-3 win.
Maria Sharapova won the last nine games of the match, after losing the first set, to sweep past Australia’s Samantha Stosur 3-6 6-4 6-0 and reach the quarter-finals.
The 19th seed outfought and outfired the former world No.1 in the first set and held her nerve when Sharapova broke early in the second set. But the Russian began to build momentum to grind down Stosur with her accuracy from the baseline.
Sharapova broke for a 5-4 lead to take the second set and raced to a 3-0 lead in the third after winning 17 of 20 points.
She will play Garbine Muguruza, who beat France’s Pauline Parmentier 6-4 6-2.