Second seed Roger Federer had been beaten in four sets by Italian Andreas Seppi, crashing out of the Australian Open at the third round on Friday.

Federer suffered his first career loss in 11 meetings between the pair in a score of 6-4, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (5).

The 33-year-old Swiss struggled with his first serve early in the match, while the 30-year-old Seppi took advantage of three of his five break points to take two sets to lead.

Federer caught the break point in the third game of the third set and won the set, his comeback let Rod Laver Arena believe it would be a successful fightback by the 17-time Grand Slam champion.

However Seppi forced a tiebreak in the fourth and clinched victory with a wonderful passing shot.

"I guess it was just an overall feeling I had today out on the court that I couldn't, you know, really get the whole game flowing. You know, was it backhand? Was it forehand? Was it serve? It was a bit of everything." Federer explained.

"Sometimes you feel too good and then you play a horrible match. I mean, the practice to me doesn't mean a thing anyway. But I was aware that this could be a tough match, so I wasn't mistaken this time around," he added.

For the match point, Seppi said: "At the beginning I thought I couldn't even reach the ball. Then, yeah, when I hit it, I didn't saw it going there. I just saw when it bounced in. [It] was, yeah, for sure one of the important shots of my life."

Although Federer had encountered big problems in tennis majors since 2013, it was the first time in 14 years, the Australian Open fourth round will not feature the Swiss maestro.

Seppi will clash with either Australian Nick Kyrgios or Tunisia's Malek Jaziri in the fourth round. Endi

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