Federer knocked out of French Open

Switzerland's Roger Federer serves during the Men's Singles fourth round match against Latvia's Ernests Gulbis on day 8 of the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris on Jun 1, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

PARIS - Swiss legend Roger Federer failed to reach the quarter-finals of the French Open for the first time since 2004 after he lost to Latvia's Ernests Gulbis in a five-set clash on Sunday.

The fourth seed was broken in his first serve game of the fifth set, which eventually led to his 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-3), 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 loss.

Gulbis, seeded 18th, will in the quarter-finals face sixth seed Czech Tomas Berdych, who beat John Isner 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

Federer was 40-15 ahead in his service game when he led 5-3 in the second set, but could not finish the set, only to see Gulbis clawed back to break him.

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

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

Then he just could not recover the deficit from Gulbis.