Murray Survives Kohlschreiber

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PARIS -- Roger Federer's streak of nine consecutive quarterfinals at the French Open ended Sunday with a 6-7 (5), 7-6 (3), 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 fourth-round loss to 18th-seeded Ernests Gulbis of Latvia.

It's Federer's earliest exit at Roland Garros since 2004, when he was beaten in the third round by Gustavo Kuerten.

After that, though, Federer made at least the quarterfinals at a record 36 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments, a streak that ended with a second-round loss at Wimbledon last year.

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Now he has bowed out before the quarterfinals at three of the last four majors.

The fourth-seeded Federer owns a record 17 Grand Slam titles, including at the 2009 French Open. But he was hardly at his best Sunday, getting broken seven times, including twice while serving for a set.

Earlier Sunday, Andy Murray found his second wind to finally get the better of Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, needing 40 minutes to complete a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 12-10 win and reach the French Open fourth round.

The match between Wimbledon champion Murray and the 28th-seeded Kohlschreiber was suspended because of fading light Saturday.

'I was cramping yesterday. My muscles were obviously fatigued,' Murray said. 'I actually woke up (feeling) okay ... the nice thing about this surface, compared with the hard court, is when you have a tough match on the hard courts you wake up the next day and your hips are sore, your knees are sore.'

John Isner also was eliminated Sunday, failing in his bid to become the first American man in the French Open quarterfinals since Andre Agassi in 2003 by losing in straight sets to sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic. Berdych will face Gulbis in the quarterfinals.

Kohlschreiber missed a chance to break Murray in the 19th game of the decider.

'He came up with some great shots when he was behind in games today,' Murray said. 'I thought both of us served a little bit better. It was a good finish to the match.'

Murray, a two-time Grand Slam champion, crouched down and clenched both fists after hitting a two-handed backhand winner on Kohlschreiber's second serve with the score at 15-40 in the 22nd game.

'Last night was extremely tough for me. I did lot of running,'' Murray said. 'Considering the circumstances, today I thought we both played some good points. We both came out probably pretty nervous.''

Murray, the 2012 U.S. Open champion, made light of a disturbed night's sleep of barely five hours.

'I was kind of ready to play at 4 or 5 in the morning,' he said. 'When you know you have to come back and it's 7-all the next day and every single point counts, basically you need to get off to a big start. You're obviously going to be a bit anxious.'

He will get a longer rest before playing Monday against No. 24 Fernando Verdasco of Spain, who easily beat 12th-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. Murray leads Verdasco 9-1 in their career head-to-heads but they have never met on clay.

Berdych improved to 5-2 against Isner in their career head-to-heads, and it was his third straight win against him. Berdych has won all three of their meetings on clay, and now beaten Isner twice at the French Open. He also won in straight sets when they met in the third round in 2010, the year Berdych reached a career-best semifinal at Roland Garros and made the Wimbledon final.

The 29-year-old Isner was the last American man in the field and was trying to be the first U.S. man to reach the French Open quarters since eight-time Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi in 2003.

'I was a little slow out there,'' Isner said. 'He was a lot better than me today.''

In men's fourth-round action later Sunday, second-seeded Novak Djokovic was playing 13th-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

newsandtalking.blogspot.com contributed to this report.

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