ROME, May 12 - Roger Federer suffered a shock defeat at the Rome Masters as he was beaten by Dominic Thiem in straight sets.
Federer, who regained the world number two spot on Monday, lost 7-6, 6-4 to his 15th-ranked opponent. The Swiss superstar will now give up that world number two ranking to Andy Murray � which perhaps crucially will make the Scot second seed for the French Open, which begins later this month. Federer and Thiem shared a close-fought opening set which went to a tie-break. But the breaker was completely one-sided, with Federer � who has only just returned to the game after suffering back problems � winning just two points and looking far from his best.
The Austrian then broke early in the second set, and held on comfortably thereafter � losing just five points on his serve throughout the entire second set.
He earned three match points on his own serve at 5-4 and while nerves kicked in on the first of them � which he double faulted � he then smashed down a thundering ace to wrap up victory over a player 12 years his senior. Thiem will play Richard Gasquet or Kei Nishikori in the quarter-finals.
In the concurrent women�s event, third seed Garbine Muguruza made it safely into the quarterfinals with a straight sets win over Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.
RESULTS: 13-Dominic Thiem (Austria) beat 2-Roger Federer (Switzerland) 7-6(2), 6-4. Irina Begu (Romania) beat Darya Kasatkina (Russia) 6-1, 6-4 3-Garbine Muguruza Blanco (Spain) beat Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) 6-1, 6-4. � Agencies
