TENNIS in DEPTH.

Tomas Berdych pulled off the biggest win of his career as defending champion Roger Federer crashed out of Wimbledon.

Federer, who has won the men’s singles title in six of the last seven years, became the latest casualty in a tournament of shocks as he went down 6-4 3-6 6-1 6-4 to the world number 13 on a stunned Centre Court.

The result was greeted with widespread disbelief as the Swiss ace joined last year’s runner-up Andy Roddick and women’s second seed Venus Williams through the exit door.

Berdych, who had lost eight of his previous 10 meetings with Federer, becomes the first Czech to reach the semi-finals of the Wimbledon men’s singles since Ivan Lendl 20 years ago and is aiming to become the first winner from his country since Jan Kodes in 1973.

Standing in his way in Friday’s semi-finals will be third seed Novak Djokovic, who has beaten him in both their previous meetings.

The Williams sisters were knocked out of the ladies’ doubles at Wimbledon on Wednesday.

Venus and Serena, the current champions at all four of the Grand Slam events, were beaten 3-6 6-3 6-4 by the Russian duo of Elena Vesnina and Vera Zvonareva at the quarter-final stage.

It had all started so well for the top seeds, winners in SW19 in 2000, 2002, 2008 and 2009, when they took the first set.

However, the Russian refused to fold and battled back by winning the second.

When the Williamses lost serve midway through the decider, the crowd sensed trouble.

And although the Americans had the chance to bounce back in the 10th game, they missed two break-back points at 15-40.

The win means Zvonareva is now in two semi-finals in SW19 – she plays Tsvetana Pironkova in the singles semis on Thursday.

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