London: Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka joyfully embraced each other four years ago in Beijing, where they won gold in men's doubles. This year's Olympics brought them disappointment and an early exit.
The sixth-seeded Swiss pair lost to Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram of Israel 1-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the second round on Court 18 at Wimbledon, where the somewhat disruptive wind and shadow at first seemed to favor Federer and Wawrinka.
"I thought we played an excellent first set. Conditions were tough. They were breezy, a lot of shadow on the courts. But that didn't disrupt our great playing," said Federer, who is still in contention for a medal in singles.
"It was a pity we couldn't create a few more, maybe, opportunities throughout the second set. But obviously they found a bit of a way to get back into the match," he said. "They definitely played better once sort of the shadow went, all the flags, all the spectator shadows were gone. It was more clean tennis."
Wawrinka said: "One or two points can change the match, especially on grass courts."
Ram and Erlich, who play the top-seeded Bryan brothers in the quarterfinals, were elated to have faced Federer in doubles.
"It's not that we play him every day," Ram said.
"In the beginning, we were very nervous. You could see it on the court," he said. "When we sit and we talked, we just tried not to do as many mistakes as we did in the first set, and we managed to do so, and we kept the level."
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