The US Open preparation of world number one Novak Djokovic suffered a major setback on Thursday as the top seed was hammered out of the Toronto Masters 6-2, 6-2 by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
The beating took just 63 minutes. It was Djokovic’s fifth loss of 2013, coming barely a month after he beat Roger Federer for the Wimbledon title.
Djokovic admitted he was well off his best from the start but was still puzzling over exactly what went wrong with his game.
“I didn’t play even close to what I intended before going to the court, just nothing was going - no baseline, no serve, no return,” he said.
“Confidence is the hardest thing to get but the easiest thing to lose. Matches like this can really play with your mind,” Djokovic said.
Confidence is the hardest thing to get but the easiest thing to lose. Matches like this can really play with your mind
Tsonga will next face eighth seed Andy Murray after the Scot got a free ride into the quarters thanks to the injury pullout of his third-round opponent, Richard Gasquet.
The French 12th seed was bothered by an abdominal strain and also withdrew from doubles this week with Tsonga.
Djokovic held an overwhelming 13-5 record against Tsonga in their career series, with the Frenchman losing his last 11 matches dating to 2011.
Federer pulls great escape
Federer earned a dramatic win just before midnight on the eve of his 33rd birthday as he beat Croatian Marin Cilic 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (3-7), 6-4 after missing on six match points in a 19-minute tenth game of the second set.
Cilic won the second set to level and took the contest into a third, with Federer earning a late break - and his only break of the match in ten tries - to secure victory after two hours, 40 minutes.
“It was a thrilling match and I hope to keep it up tomorrow,” said the second seed. “I was unlucky with some shot selections on some of the match points and he hung in there.”
“It was nice to win this one as I’ve had some tight losses this season. In the third set, his level didn’t drop, I just had to keep going and try to create chances,” Federer added.
Australian Open winner Stan Wawrinka was beaten 7-6 (10-8), 7-5, a victim of his own errors against Kevin Anderson.
It was the second time this season that the heavy-hitting South African had taken out Anderson, seeded third.
David Ferrer, the fifth seed, needed to save six break points in the second set to overcome Croatian Ivan Dodig 1-6, 6-3, 6-3. He will play Federer on Friday night.
Canadian sixth seed Milos Raonic hammered 15 aces to beat Julien Benneteau 6-3, 5-6, 6-4, reaching his third straight home quarter-final after playing the 2013 final against Rafael Nadal.
Raonic takes on Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, a winner over Czech fourth seed Tomas Berdych 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Seventh seed Grigor Dimitrov made a quiet advance into the last eight as he beat Tommy Robredo 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.
At Montreal
Fourth-seeded Maria Sharapova was beaten 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 by Carla Suarez Navarro in a match interrupted twice by rain on Thursday at the Rogers Cup.
The 16th-ranked Spaniard returned from the second delay to break Sharapova's serve and then fought off a break point in the next game thanks to a lucky net cord. She broke again in the final game to reach the quarterfinals.
The 25-year-old Suarez Navarro won her first WTA tournament earlier this year at the Portugal Open in May.
Sharapova had struggled to a three-set win in her opening match Wednesday against Garbine Muguruza.
Earlier, Caroline Wozniacki routed Shelby Rogers 6-1, 6-0 to extend her run of one-sided victories. Rogers had upset local favourite Eugenie Bouchard on Tuesday.
