Melbourne: Second seed Roger Federer was stunned in the third round of the Australian Open as he lost out to Italian Andreas Seppi on Friday.
The Swiss Maestro suffered his first career defeat in 10 meetings between the pair in the 6-4, 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(5) loss. The Italian had previously taken only one set from Federer in their previous meetings.
The 17-times Grand Slam champion has not lost this early in the season-opening grand slam since his second trip to Melbourne Park in 2001, when he also lost in the third round.
“I just tried to enjoy playing on centre court again,” Seppi said after his victory. “It’s not often you get the chance to play on centre court,†he added.
The 33-year-old Swiss struggled with his first serve early in the match, while the 30-year-old Seppi took advantage of three of his five break points to take a two sets to love lead.
Federer was up 4-1 in the second-set tiebreaker before he allowed the Italian to win six of the next seven points and the set. He led the fourth-set tiebreaker 3-1 before a double-fault helped allow the Italian to again overcome the deficit.Â
Two points from defeat in game 10, Federer held on to force another tie-break and had two serves at 5-4, but lost them both to give Seppi a match point.
Faced with the biggest point of his career, Seppi came up with a spectacular running forehand pass to complete a stunning upset.
“It was just a bad day,” Federer said.
“I wish I could have played better, but clearly it was tough losing the first two sets. I had chances to get back into it. I let it slip, both times in some ways. I guess I won the wrong points out there today,” he added.
Federer enjoyed a revival last year, vying with Novak Djokovic for the number one ranking, and began 2015 with his 83rd career title in Brisbane.
However, there had been signs in his previous match against another Italian, Simone Bolelli, that the Swiss was not at his best as he dropped the opening set.
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