LONDON  - Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka's bid to retain their Olympic doubles titles was shattered on Wednesday as the Swiss duo slumped to a shock defeat by Israel's Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram.
Despite losing the first set, the unfanciied Israelis bounced back to win 1-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 at Wimbledon on Wednesday. Federer has described his gold medal victory with Wawrinka in Beijing four years ago as one of the greatest moments of his illustrious career and he was determined to mount a strong defence of the title.
But the seven-time Wimbledon singles champion and his partner, seeded sixth at the Games, were unable to emulate their Chinese triumph as the Israeli pairing fought back on Court 18. Federer could at least take consolation from reaching the quarter-finals of the Olympic singles, achieved with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin earlier on Wednesday .
In singles, men's number two seed Novak Djokovic struggled into the quarter-finals with a hardfought 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 win over world number 158 Australia's Lleyton Hewitt. In the women's, Serena Williams ploughed to a 6-1, 6-0 win over Russia's Vera Zvonareva, who left the court in tears after the 51 minute annihilation, soon to be joined by teammate Nadia Petrova after her 7-6, 6-4 loss to Belarusian top seed Victoria Azarenka.
Venus Williams' hopes of becoming the first tennis player to win four Olympic gold medals will have to rest on the doubles after she was knocked out of the singles in a 7-6, 7-6 third-round defeat to Germany's Angelique Kerber. Beligum's Kim Clijsters, who plans to retire for the second time after the US Open in September, moved one step closer to winning a medal at her first and last Olympics with a 6-3, 6-4 win over 11th seeded Serbian Ana Ivanovic.