Nine interesting facts about Roger Federer’s upset loss
Roger Federer lost his quarterfinal match at Wimbledon to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Busted Racquet selected some interesting tidbits about the six-time champion's upset loss:
• Federer was 178-0 after winning the first two sets at a major. However, he had lost that lead twice before at non-Slam events. In the 2003 Davis Cup semifinals he lost to Lleyton Hewitt 7-5, 6-2, 6-7 (4), 5-7, 1-6. Two years later in the year-end championships in Shanghai, Federer blew a lead against his old nemesis, David Nalbandian, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (11), 2-6, 1-6, 6-7 (3).
• This will be the first year since 1999 that a Williams sister or Federer won't be playing in a Wimbledon final. (via @TheMattDowell) Although, to be fair, Federer's inclusion in that stat is almost irrelevant since Saturday's women's final will be only the second of the century not to feature Venus or Serena. The other was in 2006, so you could say "this will be the first year since 1999 that a Williams sister or Amelie Mauresmo won't be playing in a Wimbledon final."
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• Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Anna Wintour and Pippa Middleton were in the royal box to watch Federer's defeat.
• Tsonga had come back from two sets down once before in his career, five months ago at the Australian Open against Philipp Petzschner.
• Since 2005, Federer has lost more times before the semifinals at Wimbledon (twice) than in all the other Grand Slams combined (once).
• Federer is 16-13 in five-set matches during his career, a mediocre record for an all-time great. When asked why, he replied with understated bravado, "When I was probably losing four matches a year I wasn't even in fifth sets." He has a point. During his heyday, if Federer went five sets it's because he wasn't playing well in the first place.
• The loss drops Federer to a 100-15 career record on grass. His record at Wimbledon stands at 63-7.
• Federer gave credit to Tsonga after the match, telling reporters:
"It's kind of hard going out of the tournament that way, but unfortunately it does happen sometimes. At least it took him sort of a special performance to beat me, which is somewhat nice.
"He can come up with some good stuff and some poor things at times. He had basically good return games along the way in the third, fourth and fifth. I think especially the third set, the break I get is very unusual. He chips back a couple, they stay in."
• Tsonga said that beating Federer at Wimbledon was like what he imagines it'd be like to defeat Rafael Nadal at the French Open.
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