Federer loss continues shock exits at Roland Garros

Two days after making French Open history Roger Federer is bidding farewell to Roland Garros after being dumped out by Ernests Gulbis, who fought back from a set down to claim what he described as the biggest win of his career.

Federer reached the fourth round here for a record 12th time with his victory over Dmitry Tursunov on Friday, but the 2009 winner will be going no further after in-form Gulbis claimed a 6-7 (5/7) 7-6 (7/3) 6-2 4-6 6-3 victory on Philippe Chatrier Court.

A delighted Gulbis said in his on-court interview after the win: “It’s probably the biggest win of my career. Sorry to the crowd, I know how you all like Roger.

“It was a tough match but this is sport. I’ve been playing very well in France. I won tournaments in Marseille and Nice, hopefully Paris is the next one.

Gulbis, the 18th seed, will now face sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals after the Czech beat John Isner in straight sets.

“I have a new coach and it is working good. I hope I won over some of the fans and have a few more when I play Tomas Berdych next,” he added.

The 25-year-old Latvian, who lifted his second title of the year in Nice last month, had lost two of his previous three career meetings with 17-time grand slam winner Federer and it looked like the Swiss would notch up another triumph after winning the first set on a tie-break.

However, Gulbis fought back and levelled the scores up following another tie-break and then took a 2-1 lead after breaking Federer in the sixth and eighth games of the third set.

At that stage the upwardly-mobile Gulbis, who has risen to 17th in the world having been outside the top 100 at the start of 2013, was on course for a famous scalp and a place in the quarter-finals of a grand slam for only the second in his career, having also reached the last eight in Paris in 2008.

But Federer would not go down without a fight and he roared back in the fourth set with a double break to level the match up at 2-2 and send the clash to a decider.

Gulbis took an injury time-out towards the end of that set, but it was not enough to prevent the Latvian from going on to secure a memorable victory as he broke Federer again – the seventh time in the match – in the second game of the final set before serving out for the match.