Melbourne (dpa) - Italian Andreas Seppi stunned second seed Roger Federer 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) in the third round on Friday and sent the four-time champion to his earliest Australian Open defeat since 2001.
Seppi had lost all 10 of his previous matches to the Swiss, but announced his upset intentions early as he won the fist two sets against the 17-time grand slam winner and overwhelming crowd favourite.
"Just a bad day, I could have played better, but clearly it was tough losing the first two set," said Federer, who now has a month of rest and training prior to his next event in late February in Dubai.
"I had chances to get back into it, I let it slip. I guess I won the wrong points out there today. I knew how important that second-set tiebreaker was, so clearly that hurt, losing that one.
"The end wasn't pretty, it wasn't easy to play with the shadow (on the court). But it was the same for both of us. Just a disappointing loss."
Third seed Rafael Nadal made a recovery after winning with a stomach virus on Wednesday, re-establishing normal service as he beat Israel's Dudi Sela 6-1, 6-0, 7-5.
"I started the match playing well with not too many mistakes," said the Spaniard, the 2014 finalist. "I played a lot better than the other day.
"I was feeling the ball better. In the third set, he had some chances. I was a bit lucky at the end," he said after breaking Sela in the final game.
Federer, who won his last major in 2012, fought back to take the third set and dug in for what would have been his 10th fightback from two sets down.
But the dream ending was not to be as Seppi, ranked 46th and past the second round only once from 10 appearances, stole the victory.
The 30-year-old Italian from the German-speaking northern Adige region took the fourth set into a tiebreaker and recovered after Federer earned a 3-1 lead.
Seppi fired a winning inside-out forehand into the corner for a match point and sent a passing shot out of reach of the Swiss to conclude the major upset.
Federer admitted that he had poor sensations going into the match,
"I guess it was just an overall feeling I had today out on the court that I couldn't really get the whole game flowing. Was it backhand? Was it forehand? Was it serve? It was a bit of everything.
"It wasn't all bad. It's just when it counted the most somehow it just ended up going his way. I think that was because overall I wasn't feeling it quite as well.
"I had to play it a little bit passively at times when normally I would play aggressive. You know, it was just a tough match for me."
Sixth seed Andy Murray beat Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-1, 6-1, 7-5, while Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych advanced past Serbian Viktor Troicki 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, and 10th seed Grigor Dimitrov won a marathon over 2006 finalist Marcos Baghdatis 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
"I thought I played well today. I managed to dictate a lot of the points," said Murray. "I controlled the baseline very well. I hit the ball cleanly, it was a good performance."
Australia's young hopes both won through with Nick Kyrgios lining up against Seppi after dispatching Malek Jaziri 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), 6-1. Bernard Tomic won an all-Aussie clash over Sam Groth 6-4, 7-6 (10-8), 6-3.
In women's play, second seed Maria Sharapova made amends after a narrow escape in the previous round, crushing Zarina Diyas 6-1 6-1 for a fourth round place.
"I rebounded really well. I had a good hit yesterday," said the five-times grand slam champion. "I just thought a little bit about what I wanted to do.
"I tried to be a bit more aggressive, concentrate. I did a good job of focusing well."
Third seed Simona Halep joined fellow seeds Eugenie Bouchard and Ekaterina Makarova into the fourth round with a 6-4, 7-5 defeat of American Bethanie Mattek-Sandsy.
The French Open finalist, who reached second in the rankings last year, was playing the third round of a grand slam for only the fourth time. She advanced in 92 minutes with 26 winners and two breaks of serve.
Halep will next face Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, who upset Italian 14th seed Sara Errani 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Canadian seventh seed Bouchard, a 2014 semi-finalist, broke open her match in the second set against Caroline Garcia of France, winning 7-5, 6-0.
The first set required nearly an hour, with Bouchard breaking back for 3-3 on a seventh break point in a game lasting for nearly 15 minutes. Bouchard was in command after taking the opener to set up a match with Irina-Camelia Begu after the Romanian beat Germany's Carina Witthoeft 6-4, 6-4.
"I wasn't playing great tennis in the first. I feel like she was putting some pressure on me and I really didn't feel like I got a rhythm," Bouchard said. "But I'm happy that I just kept going. Even if it wasn't going so well, I was able to turn it around."
Tenth seed Makarova put out Czech Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 6-4. China's Peng Shuai stopped Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova 7-6 (9-7), 6-3 while German Julia Goerges beat Czech Lucie Hracdecka 7-6 (8-6), 7-5.
Seppi had lost all 10 of his previous matches to the Swiss, but announced his upset intentions early as he won the fist two sets against the 17-time grand slam winner and overwhelming crowd favourite.
"Just a bad day, I could have played better, but clearly it was tough losing the first two set," said Federer, who now has a month of rest and training prior to his next event in late February in Dubai.
"I had chances to get back into it, I let it slip. I guess I won the wrong points out there today. I knew how important that second-set tiebreaker was, so clearly that hurt, losing that one.
"The end wasn't pretty, it wasn't easy to play with the shadow (on the court). But it was the same for both of us. Just a disappointing loss."
Third seed Rafael Nadal made a recovery after winning with a stomach virus on Wednesday, re-establishing normal service as he beat Israel's Dudi Sela 6-1, 6-0, 7-5.
"I started the match playing well with not too many mistakes," said the Spaniard, the 2014 finalist. "I played a lot better than the other day.
"I was feeling the ball better. In the third set, he had some chances. I was a bit lucky at the end," he said after breaking Sela in the final game.
Federer, who won his last major in 2012, fought back to take the third set and dug in for what would have been his 10th fightback from two sets down.
But the dream ending was not to be as Seppi, ranked 46th and past the second round only once from 10 appearances, stole the victory.
The 30-year-old Italian from the German-speaking northern Adige region took the fourth set into a tiebreaker and recovered after Federer earned a 3-1 lead.
Seppi fired a winning inside-out forehand into the corner for a match point and sent a passing shot out of reach of the Swiss to conclude the major upset.
Federer admitted that he had poor sensations going into the match,
"I guess it was just an overall feeling I had today out on the court that I couldn't really get the whole game flowing. Was it backhand? Was it forehand? Was it serve? It was a bit of everything.
"It wasn't all bad. It's just when it counted the most somehow it just ended up going his way. I think that was because overall I wasn't feeling it quite as well.
"I had to play it a little bit passively at times when normally I would play aggressive. You know, it was just a tough match for me."
Sixth seed Andy Murray beat Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-1, 6-1, 7-5, while Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych advanced past Serbian Viktor Troicki 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, and 10th seed Grigor Dimitrov won a marathon over 2006 finalist Marcos Baghdatis 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
"I thought I played well today. I managed to dictate a lot of the points," said Murray. "I controlled the baseline very well. I hit the ball cleanly, it was a good performance."
Australia's young hopes both won through with Nick Kyrgios lining up against Seppi after dispatching Malek Jaziri 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), 6-1. Bernard Tomic won an all-Aussie clash over Sam Groth 6-4, 7-6 (10-8), 6-3.
In women's play, second seed Maria Sharapova made amends after a narrow escape in the previous round, crushing Zarina Diyas 6-1 6-1 for a fourth round place.
"I rebounded really well. I had a good hit yesterday," said the five-times grand slam champion. "I just thought a little bit about what I wanted to do.
"I tried to be a bit more aggressive, concentrate. I did a good job of focusing well."
Third seed Simona Halep joined fellow seeds Eugenie Bouchard and Ekaterina Makarova into the fourth round with a 6-4, 7-5 defeat of American Bethanie Mattek-Sandsy.
The French Open finalist, who reached second in the rankings last year, was playing the third round of a grand slam for only the fourth time. She advanced in 92 minutes with 26 winners and two breaks of serve.
Halep will next face Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, who upset Italian 14th seed Sara Errani 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Canadian seventh seed Bouchard, a 2014 semi-finalist, broke open her match in the second set against Caroline Garcia of France, winning 7-5, 6-0.
The first set required nearly an hour, with Bouchard breaking back for 3-3 on a seventh break point in a game lasting for nearly 15 minutes. Bouchard was in command after taking the opener to set up a match with Irina-Camelia Begu after the Romanian beat Germany's Carina Witthoeft 6-4, 6-4.
"I wasn't playing great tennis in the first. I feel like she was putting some pressure on me and I really didn't feel like I got a rhythm," Bouchard said. "But I'm happy that I just kept going. Even if it wasn't going so well, I was able to turn it around."
Tenth seed Makarova put out Czech Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 6-4. China's Peng Shuai stopped Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova 7-6 (9-7), 6-3 while German Julia Goerges beat Czech Lucie Hracdecka 7-6 (8-6), 7-5.
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