Federer stunned at French Open, Djokovic advances

Roger Federer suffered his earliest defeat at the French Open in a decade yesterday when he lost to Latvian Ernests Gulbis in the fourth round.

The Swiss fourth seed, who won the title in 2009, seemed to have the match in his grasp against Gulbis but faded badly to lose 6-7(5) 7-6(3) 6-2 4-6 6-3.

Federer looked a slightly forlorn figure as Gulbis turned around the match and the days when he was a near certainty to reach the semi-finals appear to be over. It was the first time since 2004 that 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, to be quite honest," said Federer.

World No. 2 Novak Djokovic made it to his 20th consecutive grand slam quarter-final, destroying Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-1 6-4 6-1 to set up a meeting with eighth seed Milos Raonic of Canada, who easily dismissed Marcel Granollers in three sets yesterday.