Defending champion Roger Federer addresses a news conference following his loss to Tomas Berdych in their quarterfinal match at Wimbledon Wednesday.

WIMBLEDON, England — After back-to-back quarterfinal losses at the French Open and Wimbledon, Roger Federer is suddenly no longer the Grand Slam certainty he used to be.

For the first time in eight years, Federer won't be striding onto the Centre Court grass on Sunday afternoon for the final at the All England Club. He won't even be playing in Friday's semifinals.

After a run of seven straight Wimbledon finals and six titles, Federer was eliminated in the quarterfinals Wednesday by hard-hitting Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.

Struggling with what he said was pain in his back and right thigh, the defending champion was outplayed 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 by the 12th-seeded Czech on the court he has called home for much of the decade.

Since winning his 16th Grand Slam title in Australia in January, Federer has not been the usual Federer. He hasn't won a single tournament and was beaten by Robin Soderling in the quarters in Paris, where he was the defending champion.

"Quarters is a decent result," Federer said in a comment that would have seemed unthinkable not long ago from a man so used to winning or playing in finals in every tournament he plays.

"Obviously people think quarters is shocking, but people would die to play in quarterfinal stages of Grand Slam play. It's not something I'm used to doing, losing in quarterfinals, because it's not something I've done in the last six years."

Federer will have to wait another year to try to equal Pete Sampras' record of seven Wimbledon titles. Not only that, he will drop to No. 3 in the ATP rankings next week for the first time since Nov. 10, 2003.

"I can't wait for Paris and Wimbledon to come around next year again, that's for sure," Federer said.