Roger Federer : "Clay doesn't need me any more"

Roger Federer

Paris, June 1 (IANS) Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer failed to reach the men's singles quarterfinals of the French Open for the first time since 2004 losing in a five-set clash here Sunday to Latvia's Ernests Gulbis.

The fourth seed was broken in his first serve game of the fifth set which eventually led to his 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 2-6, 6-4, 3-6 loss. Gulbis, seeded 18th, will face sixth seed Czech Tomas Berdych, who beat John Isner 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

Federer was 40-15 ahead on his service game when he led 5-3 in the second set,only to see Gulbis claw back to break him.

Gulbis came back to win the tie-break and broke serve twice to move into the lead after the third.

Federer responded by taking the fourth set but he slipped to 0-40 on his first service game of the decider and after saving two break points, hammered the third wide.

Then he just could not recover from the deficit.

Federer has managed to go beyond the 4th round on only three occasions in the last six Grand Slams.

Federer admitted that Gulbis played better tennis on the day.

“I’m clearly very disappointed not to come through with the win,” Federer said.

“After the chance in the second set, fighting back in the fourth, not to play a better fifth set, I have a lot of regrets here now. I think Gulbis did a good job of hanging around and clearly coming back in that second set was crucial for him.

“When you go deep in a fifth set, margins are so small that it’s not necessarily always the fitter guy who wins or always necessarily the better player who wins. You just have to create chances, and he did that definitely better in the fifth today than me.”

Federer also spoke of his favorite surface.

“Mentally I have already switched to the grass, to be quite honest,” said Federer. “For me, it's like, ‘the clay-court season was fun, but we are moving on.’ Clay doesn't need me anymore, I got flushed out here.

“Clearly first the focus is on Halle, try to defend my title there. It's nice going back to a place where I have to defend something. Hasn't been like this for a while, so that's something I'm looking forward to. I think when I'm healthy, like I have been now for the last six to nine months, I think I can also decide the outcome of the matches more than I could last year. I’m very excited about my chances for Wimbledon now this time.”

Federer is the defending champion at Halle, which will also see the participation of Rafael Nadal and Milos Raonic.

“Things are going to change with the grass season,” added Federer. “It's going to be different. I have to shorten the back-swing.

“Usually one plays well on grass because one has to do so much on clay to put pressure on the ball that it's necessary to hit hard. I feel the same for myself. When you move on the quick ground, it's difficult to take the speed from the opponent. On clay it's different, and that's probably the reason I play rather well on grass after the clay season.”

Here’s hoping Federer to have a good season on grass.