PARIS: Roger Federer was knocked out of the French Open at the quarterfinal stage on Tuesday, falling in three sets to fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka, the eighth seed, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).

Federer, the second seed and 2009 champion at Roland Garros, had only ever lost twice in 18 previous meetings with his compatriot but was well beaten on a windy Court Suzanne Lenglen.

The 17-time Grand Slam champion proved incapable of breaking his opponent’s serve at all over the course of a match that lasted two hours and nine minutes.

Remarkably, it was just the third time in his career he had failed to break an opponent’s serve in a Grand Slam match — the last came against Max Mirnyi at the US Open in 2002 when he was aged just 21 and had not yet won a major.

It is a further sign of the decline of the 33-year-old, who was also beaten in the third round of the Australian Open earlier this year by Italy’s Andreas Seppi.

Federer’s last Grand Slam title was almost three years ago when he captured his seventh Wimbledon title in 2012.

In contrast, Wawrinka broke decisively in the first set and then twice more in the second. There were no breaks in a far tighter third set, but Wawrinka won it on his second match point in the tiebreak.

“We know Stan can do this and it’s nice for him and important for him to string it together and do well. I thought he played really great tennis today,” said a diplomatic Federer, who admitted his opponent handled the blustery conditions far better.

“It was tough so it’s all the more impressive the way Stan was able to play.”

Through to his first ever French Open semifinal, Wawrinka will face the winner of Tuesday’s other quarter-final between Japan’s fifth seed Kei Nishikori and home hope Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the 14th seed.

Ana Ivanovic advanced to the semifinals of a major tournament for the first time since winning her only Grand Slam title at the French Open seven years ago with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Elina Svitolina on Tuesday.

The seventh-seeded Ivanovic played aggressively throughout and compensated for her many mistakes with 37 winners to extend her unbeaten record against her 20-year-old opponent to seven.

After sealing her win with a forehand passing shot — her 28th forehand winner of the match — the 2008 champion at Roland Garros said: “I don’t know if I should feel very old or very happy.”

With windy conditions on Court Philippe Chatrier, a large piece of paneling later fell off a giant TV screen, holding up the quarterfinal match between Kei Nishikori and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for about 40 minutes after the Frenchman took a 6-1, 5-2 lead.

First-aid workers assisted a spectator who appeared to have been slightly injured and was evacuated holding his right wrist. The man grinned and waved to the crowd as he left the court.

The piece of paneling crashed down with a bang from a giant screen that overlooks the court. It was unclear what caused it to detach.

After the match resumed, organizers said in a statement that three people were slightly injured in the incident.

There were no twists and turns of that sort in Ivanovic’s match.

The 27-year-old Ivanovic will next face 13th-seeded Lucie Safarova, who defeated Garbine Muguruza 7-6 (3), 6-3 to advance to her second Grand Slam semifinal. Safarova, who upset defending champion Maria Sharapova in the previous round, also made it to the semifinals at Wimbledon last year.