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 The Swiss fourth seed, who won the title in 2009, seemed to have
the match in his grasp against the unpredictable Gulbis but faded
badly to lose 6-7(5) 7-6(3) 6-2 4-6 6-3.
World No.2 Djokovic destroyed local favorite Tsonga 6-1 6-4 6-1 to
set up a meeting with eighth seed Milos Raonic of Canada, who
advanced with an emphatic 6-3 6-3 6-3 victory over Spain's Marcel
Granollers.
Last year's runner-up Maria Sharapova, the seventh seed, survived a
shaky start to beat Australian Sam Stosur 3-6 6-4 6-0, winning the
last nine games to set up a quarter-final against Spanish sensation
Garbine Muguruza, who rounded off a bad day for the host nation with
a 6-4 6-2 win against France's Pauline Parmentier.
Another fast-rising talent, Canadian Eugenie Bouchard thrashed
German eighth seed Angelique Kerber 6-1 6-2 to claim a quarter-final
spot, crunching 30 winners in 52 dazzling minutes to stretch her
winning run on clay to nine matches.
Andy Murray lived to fight another day after a five-set thriller
against Philipp Kohlschreiber in the third round.
While Djokovic made it to his 20th consecutive grand slam
quarter-final, it was the first time since 2004 that 32-year-old
father of four Federer failed to reach the last eight in Paris. He
has now fallen before that stage in three of his last four grand
slam tournaments.
"Mentally I have already switched to the grass, to be quite honest,"
said Federer. "For me, it's like, okay, claycourt season was fun,
but we are moving on. Clay doesn't need me anymore, I got flushed
out here."
Former world No.1 Federer, who became father to a second set of
twins recently, looked a slightly forlorn figure as Gulbis turned
around the match and the days when he was a near certainty to reach
semi-finals appear to be over.
BIGGEST WIN
The 17-times grand slam champion was beaten in the second round at
Wimbledon last year and the last 16 at the U.S. Open although he did
enjoy a semi-final run in Australia.
On yet another gloomy day in Paris after some welcome sunshine on
Saturday, Federer never looked comfortable against Gulbis, who said
earlier this week he was hoping to catch the "last-chance train"
after under-achieving since reaching the quarter-finals of the
Frecnh Open in 2008.
"It is the biggest win of my career. I had to win, I know how all of
you love Roger but that's sport," world No.17 Gulbis said on the
court as the stunned fans looked on.
"I won tournaments in Marseille and Nice so hopefully Paris is the
next one. I win, I win over some fans," he added, looking ahead to
his next match against sixth seeded Czech Tomas Berdych who ended
U.S. interest in the men's singles with a 6-4 6-4 6-4 trouncing of
towering John Isner.
Federer, who squandered two set points for a two-set lead, left
court Philippe Chatrier head bowed after allowing Gulbis to come
back and dominate with some relentless attacking tennis.
At 5-2 in the fourth set Gulbis took a medical timeout and he came
back with all guns blazing to break Federer's serve immediately, on
the way to winning 10 of the next 11 points against a visibly
rattled opponent.
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Federer still managed to take the set but he was never the same
again and Gulbis controlled his own suspect temperament to claim
victory when a Federer backhand went wide.
The French crowd were hoping that 13th seed Tsonga would cheer them
up, but Djokovic had other ideas.
It took him 89 minutes to tear Tsonga apart, opening a 5-0 lead and
never looking back, ending the ordeal on the first match point.
BOUCHARD FLIES
Seventh seed Murray reached the fourth round, winning 3-6 6-3 6-3
4-6 12-10 against Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber having re-started
the match on Sunday locked at 7-7 in the fifth after bad light
stopped play the previous evening.
He will play Spain's Fernando Verdasco next after he also returned
to finish off Frenchman Richard Gasquet with ease.
With so many top seeds gone from the women's draw, 20-year-old
Bouchard is now looking like a serious title contender, but so is
crowd favorite Sharapova, who once again showed her resilience on
court Suzanne Lenglen.
The 18th seeded Bouchard, who reached the Australian Open semi-final
this year, completely outclassed Kerber and after her first WTA
title last week in Nuremberg she is flying high.
"I feel like since the beginning of the year I have been improving
my game, since Australia I'm at a different level from there,"
Bouchard said.
"I have confidence in myself. I can play like this and play even
better."
She will face 14th seed Carla Suarez Navarro after the Spaniard used
her one-handed backhand to great effect to end the run of
up-and-coming Croatian Ajla Tomljanovic with a 6-3 6-3 win.
Sharapova was outfought by Stosur in the first set but the Russian
began to build a remorseless momentum to grind down Stosur with her
accuracy from the baseline.
Sharapova broke for a 5-4 lead to take the second set and raced to a
3-0 lead in the third after winning 17 of 20 points. Stosur never
recovered.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Martyn Herman and Toby
Davis)
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