TWELVE months ago, Roger Federer made history with a record-equalling seventh title at SW19.

Yesterday, he tried to convince everyone that he was not becoming it.

The Swiss was sent packing from Wimbledon courtesy of a 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 7-5, 7-6 (5) loss to Sergiy Stakhovsky, the world No.116 from Ukraine. It came just 48 hours after Rafa Nadal's defeat by world No.135 Steve Darcis, meaning that the two men who have shared out nine of the last 10 titles here had both been removed from the competition with a round to spare before their hyped potential quarter final meeting.

This was the earliest any defending champion had exited the tournament since Lleyton Hewitt crashed out to Ivo Karlovic here in 2003, incidentally the competition in which Federer won his first slam.

Federer's demise put the tin lid on a day as remarkable as any in the history of the All England Club, and put an end to an extraordinary period of consistency in the grand slam events. It was his first loss to anyone outside the world's top 100 for seven years, and halted a run of 36 consecutive quarter-final appearances. Quite simply, prior to yesterday the Swiss appearing in the last eight of the slams has been up there with death and taxes as one of life's little certainties.

Publicly at least, the 31-year-old last night refused to panic as he sought to reassure his fans that an eighth title here remains plausible when he returns in 12 months time. "What do you do after something like this?" Federer asked. "What do you do? You do the 24-hour rule: you don't panic at this point, that's clear. You just go back to work and come back stronger really. It is hard to do but usually I do turnarounds pretty good. I'm looking forward to what's to come, you know. I hope I can play a good summer, and have a good end to the season. Looking forward I hope that I can do better next year."

There was loose talk last night that this defeat represented an end of an era, an opinion strengthened by the fact that what ultimately confounded the Swiss was a serve-and-volley game from Stakhovsky – who came in almost 100 times – which seemed to hark back to a bygone era. But perhaps the only departure was Federer's failure to find a way to win, similar to the blow-out he suffered at the hands of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the French Open quarter-finals.

"It's normal that after all of a sudden losing early after being in the quarters 36 times, people feel it's different," he said. "You guys hyped it up so much, me playing Rafa, and we're both out. So there's a letdown clearly. Maybe it's also somewhat a bit disrespectful to the other opponents who are in the draw still. I'm very disappointed I couldn't find a way, like I did against Jo-Willy at the French. I had opportunities, had the foot in the door. But when I had the chance, I couldn't do it."

Stakhovsky, who lost the US Open Junior event to Andy Murray in 2004, gloried in his first ever win against a player in the top 10. But this was so much more than that. He said that he had prevailed against two Roger Federers: the man and the ego.

"When you come here, on the cover of the Wimbledon book, is Roger Federer," the 27-year-old said. "You're playing the guy and then you're playing his legend, which is following him because he won it seven times. He's holding all possible records here, winning matches and everything. You're playing two of them. When you're beating one, you still have the other one who is pressing you. You're saying 'Am I about to beat him? Is it possible?'

"I never volleyed for so long so well. The titles I won were usually best-of-three so I didn't need to volley for four sets.

"It shows how hard it is to be in the top 100. Because there's 100 better guys than me, that's it. I didn't think about it. I went in to be competitive. But I was saying that if I could hold to him in the beginning of the match, then I have a chance of maybe even doing something. Winning was great, but I didn't win the tournament. I just won the second round."

Stakhovsky was too caught up in the moment to consider whether he was ushering in a new era of old-school serve and volleying. The strategy had become obsolete given the surfaces used on the ATP Tour but the grass courts at SW19 are playing faster this year and had aided his cause.

"It's not up to me if there is a revival," he said. "It's about the tournaments and surfaces we play on. I hardly believe a surface is left on which you can serve and volley successfully – it's that simple. But grass is adaptive to the weather conditions. When it's windy and it's not that hot, it's faster. When it's hot, it's very slow."

As it is, it is Stakhovsky who faces Juergen Melzer of Austria in the third round of an event where he could yet do some more damage. But whatever happens next in this harum scarum tournament, he will have something to tell the grandkids. "Ask me this question when I'm done in this tournament. Right now I can definitely tell my grandkids that I kicked the butt of Roger Federer."