[1]Wimbledon legend Roger Federer crashed out of the tournament in a shock quarterfinal defeat to Tomas Berdych on Wednesday, blowing open the draw for Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray.
The Swiss defending champion, who had been gunning for a record-equalling seventh Wimbledon singles title, was beaten 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 by Czech 12th seed Berdych on Centre Court, where Federer has ruled the roost for the best part of a decade.
The top seed’s downfall means Djokovic — who booked his semifinal place by beating Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun — Nadal and Murray will all feel their chances of claiming the Wimbledon crown have been greatly improved.
Serbian third seed Djokovic, who has reached the semis here just once before, beat Lu 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 to book his spot in the last four. Djokovic faces Berdych in the semifinals.
In another quarterfinal, second seed Rafael Nadal of Spain beat sixth-seeded Swede Robin Soderling 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-1.
Berdych, the first Czech man to reach the Wimbledon semifinals since Ivan Lendl in 1990, said he could hardly believe he had put out the world number two on his stomping ground.”It’s amazing to play in this stadium, to play such a great player as Roger is and come here and be a winner, this is really amazing for me,” he said.
On Court One, Lu had put out three-times beaten finalist Andy Roddick to get through to the last eight — the best-ever Grand Slam performance by a Taiwanese player — but was no match for the in-form Djokovic.
Federer has been almost untouchable at Wimbledon for the last seven years, winning the title six times and appearing in every final since 2003. Since losing in the first round to Croatia’s Mario Ancic in 2002, Federer had been beaten just once at the All England Club — when Rafael Nadal out-lasted him in the 2008 final.
But Berdych produced the performance of his life to leave Federer to contemplate the latest in a growing line of disappointing results for the 28-year-old.
After dropping three sets in the first two rounds here, the top seed had produced a pair of comprehensive victories to make the last eight, but those results were only papering over the cracks in Federer’s game.
By his own high standards 2010 has been a forgettable year for Federer, who has now failed to win any of his eight tournaments since beating Andy Murray in the Australian Open final in January.
Although Federer had won eight of his previous 10 encounters with Berdych, the Czech only had to think back to his win in their last meeting — in Miami in March — for evidence that he could shock the champion. The 24-year-old had never been past the last eight here but he was in fine form after making the French Open semifinals earlier this month. Here he was able to test Federer with some booming ground-strokes and the Swiss himself was struggling to get any kind of read on Berdych’s serve. — AFP
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