World number one Roger Federer's hopes of winning his first Rome Masters were dashed on Friday when he was knocked out at the quarter-final stage 7-6 7-6 by unseeded Czech Radek Stepanek.

The top-seeded Swiss lost the first set in the tiebreak and twice came back from a break down in the second before being undone in another tiebreak. Federer's elimination follows world number two Rafael Nadal's shock second-round exit on Wednesday.

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