WIMBLEDON, England — For two superb sets Wednesday, everything looked so routine for Roger Federer, precisely the way it did for so many years at Wimbledon — and nearly everywhere else too.
Little comes easily for Federer anymore, even at the All England Club, where he has won six of his record 16 major championships.
Before Wednesday, Federer was 178-0 when taking the first two sets of a Grand Slam match. Now he’s 178-1.
Facing a younger, quicker and better-serving opponent, Federer failed to make his big lead stand up and lost 3-6, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to 12th-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France in the quarterfinals.
“I was feeling really strong because I never — how you say that? — panic. I was, all the time, really focused,” Tsonga said. “I was not scared on big points.”
The other favorites all won, though not without some difficulty: No. 1 Rafael Nadal numbed his injured left foot with a painkilling injection then beat No. 10 Mardy Fish of the United States 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4; No. 2 Novak Djokovic was a break down in the third set but reeled off seven games in a row to get past 18-year-old qualifier Bernard Tomic of Australia 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5; and No. 4 Andy Murray pulled up awkwardly after tweaking his hip changing directions on one third-set point but otherwise breezed past unseeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
Although Fish thought Nadal moved well against him and showed no sign of injury, the 10-time major champion said: “My foot is not fine. But we are in quarterfinals of Wimbledon. Is an emergency, so I had to play.”
