Shock losses and withdrawals dominated the results card at Wimbledon overnight with Federer, Tsonga, Sharapova, Azarenka and Wozniacki out of the event.
Defending champion Roger Federer crashed out when he lost to Ukraine’s world No.116 Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 7-6 (7-5) in his worst grand slam defeat for a decade.
Third seed and 2004 champion Maria Sharapova lost her second-round match 6-3 6-4 to Portuguese qualifier Michelle Larcher De Brito.
Former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki lost 6-2, 6-2 to qualifier Petra Cetkovska.
Victoria Azarenka and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga were among seven players forced out with injury.
Federer’s shock loss brought to an end seven-time champion Federer’s extraordinary record in the sport’s four majors.
Federer had made 36 consecutive grand slam quarter-final appearances, having not gone out of a major before the last eight since the 2004 French Open.
It was his earliest Wimbledon defeat since he was knocked out in the first round in 2002 by Mario Ancic.
The following year he had lost in the first round of the French Open to Luis Horna.
“I’m very disappointed. Losing at Wimbledon always has been that way, will never change. So just got to get over this one. Some finals haven’t hurt this much, that’s for sure,” Federer said.
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The polyglot son of a urology professor and a retired university economics teacher, Stakhovsky spends his time off reading Russian classics and playing billiards, among other pursuits.
Stakhovsky, who next faces Austria’s unseeded Jurgen Melzer for a place in the last 16, was struggling to take in his victory over the 17-time grand slam champion.
“I’m still in disbelief that it actually happened,” said the 27-year-old, who does not even have a coach.
“When you play Roger at Wimbledon it’s like you play two people. First you play his ego then as well on Centre Court where he is historic. It is like two against one.
“I don’t know how to describe it. Magic. I couldn’t play any better”
Federer’s defeat leaves the bottom half of the draw wide open for Britain’s second seed Andy Murray, with two-time champion Rafael Nadal already out and sixth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga withdrawing through injury.
Spain’s 15th seed Nicolas Almagro is the highest-ranked player remaining in the bottom half.
Andy Murray emerged unscathed on a day of astonishing injury mayhem at Wimbledon as the world No.2 eased into the third round with a 6-3 6-3 7-5 win over Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun.
Murray was never threatened by Lu’s lightweight game and the US Open champion breezed through in two hours, in the process avenging an embarrassing defeat against the world No.75 at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
While Murray would never admit it publicly, he would also have been pleased with the news from the Wimbledon treatment table, with French sixth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Croatian 10th seed Marin Cilic among the victims of an incredible run of injury withdrawals.
Tsonga and Cilic were Murray’s most likely quarter-final opponents, but instead the highest ranked player left in the Scot’s quarter is now Russian 20th seed Mikhail Youzhny.
Steve Darcis, the world No.135 who stunned Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon, pulled out of the tournament with a shoulder injury.
In the women’s draw third seed and 2004 champion Maria Sharapova crashed out,losing her second-round match 6-3 6-4 to Portuguese qualifier Michelle Larcher De Brito.
Sharapova’s defeat came just hours after second seed Victoria Azarenka withdrew from the tournament with a knee injury while two former world No.1’s Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic were eliminated.
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It was a controversial exit for Sharapova who twice slipped and fell on Court Two.
She needed a medical timeout to treat her left hip after the eighth game of the second set and complained to the umpire that the surface was dangerous.
Larcher De Brito had hit the headlines in 2009 when, as a precocious 16-year-old, she was widely-criticised for her on-court grunting which some rivals condemned as unsporting.
The controversy did her career little good as she virtually disappeared off the radar and her ranking slumped.
But honing the skills and screams she perfected at the same Bollettieri academy home of Sharapova, she capitalised on her famous rival’s obvious discomfort at having to play on Court Two.
The Russian pleaded that the conditions were too treacherous but the match continued.
“I saw how she fell pretty hard and I know these grass courts can be really slippery and can be quite dangerous,” said Larcher De Brito, who took victory on a fifth match point.
“There’s a lot of grass that’s been cut that didn’t get swept off so there’s a lot of dead grass on the top and it made it quite slippery.”
World No.131 Larcher De Brito goes on to face Karin Knapp of Italy for a place in the last 16.
Ninth seed Wozniacki slumped to a 6-2 6-2 defeat to Petra Cetkovska.
Wozniacki, who has never fared very well on the London grass, is going through a mediocre season and also lost in the second round at the French Open.
The 196th-ranked Cetkovska, who reached the fourth round at Wimbledon two years ago, erased the six break points she faced and hit 30 winners.
A qualifier from the Czech Republic, Cetkovska’s 2012 was cut short after the London Olympics because of a right ankle injury.
Ivanovic was knocked out by Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard, the reigning girls’ champion.
The 12th seeded Serb, who made the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2007, was beaten 6-3 6-3 in 63 minutes by the 19-year-old Bouchard, who is making her main draw debut at the All England Club.
Bouchard, the world No.66, faces Spanish 19th seed Carla Suarez Navarro in the third round.
“We found out 15 minutes before going on court so I was really excited, it was crazy and great to play before this crowd,” Bouchard said.
On speculation that she could be the next big thing in women’s tennis, she said: “It’s nice to hear those things for sure. I’m really happy to play well again here. Last year I won the juniors so it feels like my second home here, I love it here.”
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