New York, Sep 3 (IANS) Roger Federer had won all of his previous 10 meetings with Tommy Robredo, losing only three sets in total, but that did nothing with his straight set loss to the Spaniard in the men's singles fourth round of the US Open here.
Five-time champion Federer was kept out of the last eight gate after losing to veteran Robredo 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 6-4 Monday, reports Xinhua.
It was more than a loss to Federer, the all-time Grand Slam singles champion with 17 titles for the first time missed all four Grand Slams in one season since 2002.
Additionally, his nine-year US Open quarter-final appearance record also came to a stop.
"I think I start badly, which put me down a break," said Federer after the match.
"I struggled throughout, which is not very satisfying, to be honest. Tommy did a good job to keep the ball in play and make difficult for me today."
The difficulty for Federer started from the very beginning of the match, in which Robredo survived a couple of long rallies to break the 32-year-old Swiss in the first game.
Federer was able to break back in the fourth game, and the two tied until the tiebreak. The tiebreak seemed to stay in favour of Federer at the beginning, but Robredo managed to catch back, powering an Ace to end the first set 7-6 (7-3).
The second set was another miserable one for Federer. Actually the former world number one forced three break points in the fifth game, but he converted none of them. Robredo took chance to hold serve, and then respond Federer's generosity with a break in the eighth game, serving out the set 6-3.
"I missed so many chances," said Federer. "Rhythm was off. Yeah, when those things happen, clearly it's always going to be difficult."
The Louis Armstrong court became the home court of Federer. The Swiss, who had ever won 40 straight matches at US Open, enlightened the spectators by forcing five break points in the third game. But he, again, missed them all.
Robredo let go no chance, breaking in the seventh game, and kept his following service games to end the 2-hour-24-minute match 6-4.
"It was amazing," said Robredo who got a big win.
"For me Roger for the moment is the best player of all times. To beat him in a huge stadium like the US Open and in a Grand Slam, a match of five sets, it's like a dream."
Federer outnumbered Robredo 43-26 in unforced errors. The man famous for "beautiful tennis" took risk to go to net 52 times throughout the match, more than three times of Robredo, but missed 20 of them.
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