A day of slips and stumbles was crowned in the gloaming by the biggest upset of them all. Roger Federer is out of Wimbledon after a 7-6, 6-7, 5-7, 6-7 second-round defeat by Sergiy Stakhovsky, a 27-year-old Ukrainian ranked No116 in the world. As shocks go, it is arguably the greatest in the history of men's grand slam tennis. Federer may be 31, but he remains an all-time great who has yet to dip below the horizon of his peak, and yet here he was at times overwhelmed by Stakhovsky's aggression at the net and a relentlessly accurate serve.
By 8.15pm the men's champion was out of Wimbledon, bringing to an end a run of 36 consecutive grand slam quarter-finals. It was a result that really did come from nowhere. Stakhovsky lost the first set on a tie-break but an hour and a half later he was storming his way through the fourth, still charging to the net on gangly, coltish legs that seemed never to tire. At the end he fell on his back on the grass, a final collapse to end the day as Centre Court rose to applaud not just one of the great shocks, but a brilliant, and brilliantly unexpected performance.
