Roger Federer was knocked out of the Paris Masters yesterday after falling to a 7-6(3) 3-6 7-6(5) third-round defeat against big-serving John Isner.

The third-seeded Swiss held serve throughout but lost the two tiebreaks against his American opponent, who will face Spain’s David Ferrer in the quarter-finals.

Federer seemed to be cruising after breezing through the second set, but Isner pushed him to another tiebreak, using his devastating serve to prevail in the deciders.

Isner, who fired down 27 aces, ended the contest on his fourth match point with a service winner.

“It’s tough to get out of the tournament not having lost your serve but that’s how it can go against John,” the former world number one told reporters.

“At the very end of the season, going two tournaments in a row after playing a lot of tennis in Basel the week before... there’s maybe a bit of a letdown after Basel.”

Federer’s defeat was the first upset at Bercy after world number one Novak Djokovic and second seed Andy Murray advanced.

Djokovic’s serve suffered a second-set malfunction against Gilles Simon but the Serb stayed on course for a third consecutive title on the banks of the River Seine with a 6-3 7-5 victory.

He dropped serve four times in the second set but Simon could not capitalise as Djokovic set up a quarter-final against either Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Tomas Berdych.

Djokovic, however, will need to raise his game if he is to win a fourth title in Paris as his possible final opponent, Murray, looked in ominous form.

The Scot put a marker down for the Davis Cup final when he dismantled Belgium’s David Goffin 6-1 6-0 in awe-inspiring fashion to advance into the last eight.

Three weeks before Britain and Belgium face off in the Davis Cup final on clay in Ghent, Murray had just too much pace for the 16th seeded Goffin on the Bercy court.

Goffin can only hope the red dust will slow down world number three Murray in the November 27-29 tie.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.