Roger Federer: Counting Down FedEx's Worst Clay Performances Ever

Roger Federer has had a few lousy matches on his road to the quarterfinals of the 2012 French Open.

He has dropped a set in each of his past three matches, though he has still remained afloat in the tournament.

Federer has expressed several times throughout his career that clay is his least favorite surface (and the results are quite apparent), although he is still the third greatest clay-courter of all time.

Nevertheless, the Maestro is not new to ugly wins or losses on the red clay, simply because his backhand does not do much damage against the opposition, and his forehand and serve can both go way off on certain days.

Here are his five worst matches ever played on clay.

Montanes Def. Federer 6-2, 7-6 (5)

Roger had begun to endure some tough losses following his capture of the winner's trophy in the 2010 Australian Open.

He lost tight matches to the likes of Marcos Baghdatis and Tomas Berdych, and hoped to at least make a statement in the clay season—this for sure did not happen.

Feds was in a slump and remained on a fixed track, which included losses to Rafael Nadal in Madrid, Ernests Gulbis in Rome and Robin Soderling at Roland Garros (the latter two will be featured in this slideshow).

Meanwhile, he played in Estoril, an ATP 250 event, in hopes of gaining a few points to keep his world ranking higher than No. 4.

He fell to Albert Montanes in the semifinal in 82 minutes. After getting off to a slow start he attempted to get back into the match, though his fight was almost completely from the back of the court.

This tactic did not work, and his constant streak of unforced errors saw him bow out early.

Gulbis Def. Federer 2-6, 6-1, 7-5

After barely winning a tough three-setter against the Latvian in Madrid, it seemed Roger's road to Roland Garros would not end as nicely as he and his fans had hoped.

The Swiss committed 38 unforced errors and struck just 20 winners (with a differential of minus-eight, as opposed to Gulbis' minus-six).

Even after the young Latvian choked, Roger granted him yet another break so that the visibly nervous Gulbis could seal the deal.

Djokovic Def. Federer 6-2, 7-6 (4)

This is the most recent of Roger's struggles outside of the French Open.

He played so well in the months and tournaments prior to Rome that perhaps all the extraneous effort and play caught up with him.

Nevertheless, he wanted to seize the opportunity to gain more points, attempting to regain the No. 1 position.

He did so, but in order to truly shoot up the board, he had to either win the whole event or at least make the final.

He did not show up in his semifinal encounter with Novak Djokovic, and could not penetrate the court with his backhand (or his forehand for a good portion of the occasion).

He served under 50 percent with his first serve, which is a statistic that is nearly unheard of for him.

Nole made Roger play many shots (definitely more backhands, though) and got into lengthy baseline points due to his ability to neutralize the Swiss' serve off the return.

Roger clawed his way back into the second set with some inspired play and an oh-so-clutch forehand on the line, but all of that was not good enough that day.

Soderling Def. Federer 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4

As the defending champion of Roland Garros for the very first time in his career, he sought to make another routine final as he had done year after year for half a decade.

But he lost to the man he took out easily in the final the year prior: Robin Soderling.

The Swede won for the first time against the Swiss player, and this match was one of the early Grand Slam losses Federer endured where he won the first set yet still went to the loser's booth for the post-match press conference.

This statistic would continue for four out of his next seven exits in Majors.

Nadal Def. Federer 6-1, 6-3, 6-0

A mixture of Rafa Nadal in his prime and Roger Federer not showing up for a match on red clay only added to a recipe for disaster for the latter athlete.

Rafa played sublime tennis and Roger could do nothing to hurt him.

It seemed that the Maestro hung up his racket after dropping the second set, and he certainly would have loved to have played better tennis that day to at least give himself a set in that final, as he typically does against his rival from Spain.

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