Day 5 results: Seppi ousts Federer in earliest AusOpen exit since 2000

Author:
Courtney Nguyen
Publish date:
Jan 23, 2015

MELBOURNE -- Catch up on all of the action from the Australian Open on Friday that you may have missed while you were sleeping:

Andreas Seppi snaps Roger Federer's 11-year streak

In the biggest upset of the tournament, No. 46 Seppi stunned Federer with a 6-4, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (5) win on Friday on Rod Laver Arena. The 30-year-old Italian was 0-10 against Federer before today, but he played some of his best tennis to catch Federer on an off day. Read about the upset here.

"He hits a good ball, forehand and backhand, so I knew that on a quicker court where he gets more help on the serve it was potentially going to be more tricky," Federer said. "And I felt for some reason yesterday and this morning it was not going to be very simple today. Even in practice I still felt the same way. I was just hoping it was one of those feelings you sometimes have and it's totally not true and you just come out and you play a routine match. It was a mistake."

The win snapped Federer's streak of making 11 consecutive Australian Open semifinals. Here's some context: The last time Federer failed to make the semifinals in Melbourne, Andy Murray was 13 years old. The last time he lost in the third round was 2001. Eugenie Bouchard was seven.

Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic book two Aussies into the fourth round

Kyrgios has shown some great fortitude to put aside all the distractions of a back injury to make the fourth round of the Australian Open for the first time. He beat 19-year-old beat Malek Jaziri 6-3, 7-6 (6), 6-1 on Fiday and will play Seppi.

Not to be ignored is Tomic, who came into the tournament flying well under the radar. He beat Sam Groth 6-4, 7-6 (8), 6-3 and will play No. 7 Tomas Berdych, who put on a masterclass to end Viktor Troicki's run, winning 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.

Andy Murray quietly moves into the fourth round

Murray hasn't lost a set through three matches, beating Joao Sousa 6-1, 6-1, 7-5. He'll play Grigor Dimitrov in the fourth round after Dimitrov went the full five to defeat Marcos Baghdatis. That will be a popcorn match.

Rafael Nadal rebounds

Nadal came back from his five set match against Tim Smyczek on Wednesday to beat Israeli veteran Dudi Sela 6-1, 6-0, 7-5 on Rod Laver Arena on Friday. He'll play No. 14 Kevin Anderson in the fourth round.

Eugenie Bouchard passes test with flying colors

The No. 7 seed took care of business on Friday, beating Caroline Garcia 7-5, 6-0 to earn a spot in the fourth round.

Simona Halep ousted one of the seven remaining American women in the tournament, defeating Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4, 7-5. In the first night match on RLA, Maria Sharapova needed just 61 minutes to top Zarina Diyas. Halep plays Wickmayer on Sunday and Sharapova is matched up against No. 21 seed Shuai Peng.

Photo of the day

Video of the day

Watch Seppi's match point pass:

[youtube=http://youtu.be/oGl0vme9ODA]

Celebration of the day

Quote of the day

Federer on Seppi: "I think he did well. I struggled today and he took advantage of it really. I wish I believed maybe if we played at night I would have been more comfortable, but at this point who cares, right? I mean, like I'm on the plane and he's not."