Friday 8 August 2014 12:41, UK
Top seed Novak Djokovic was sent crashing out of the Toronto Masters after suffering a shock 6-2 6-2 defeat to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Djokovic had been pushed all the way to a deciding tie-break against Tsonga’s fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils a day earlier and this time was not able to fight his way out of trouble.
The Wimbledon champion made 18 unforced errors and dropped his serve on four occasions during the 63-minute loss, his first in a completed match against Tsonga since the beginning of 2010.
The result was all the more surprising given the fact Djokovic went into the Candian tournament having won five of the last six Masters 1000 tournaments he has participated while reaching the semi-finals in the other.
He did not even manage to fashion a break point until the last game of the contest, which Tsonga duly saved before converting a match point with a heavy serve.
"I didn't play even close to what I intended before going to the court, just nothing was going (well) - no baseline, no serve, no return," Djokovic said.
"It was just generally very bad day, a very poor performance. I couldn't do much. Obviously I feel disappointment, and I'm trying to understand what I did wrong. Confidence is the hardest thing to get but easiest thing to lose.
"Matches like this can really play with your mind. But in the end of the day, it's not the first match and last match that I lost in my career."
Tsonga, who served a total of eight aces, will next face Andy Murray after the British No 1 was given a free pass into the quarter-finals when his third-round opponent Richard Gasquet withdrew due to injury.
Elsewhere in Toronto, third seed Stanislas Wawrinka was also a surprise loser after he was defeated 7-6 (10-8) 7-5 by Kevin Anderson.
Anderson beat the Australian Open champion at Indian Wells earlier this year and produced another upset in Canada.
"It was an OK match, for sure, but it's tough to lose that one. In general he served really well. It was tough to return, a little bit windy," Wawrinka said.
"But I had some chances, especially in the first set. I had set point and two, three times 0-30. It was more about choosing the right shot to play. I made some mistakes that I shouldn't have."
Anderson will next face seventh seed Grigor Dimitrov, who battled his way to a 7-5 5-7 6-4 victory against Tommy Robredo. Fifth seed David Ferrer also made it through after a 1-6 6-3 6-3 win against Ivan Dodig.
