Tennis: Andy Murray back to form but top seed Federer crashes

Published on Wednesday 28 April 2010 10:38

ROGER FEDERER was dumped out of the ATP Rome Masters after a stunning turnaround in his second-round meeting with Ernests Gulbis, but Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray both progressed.

• Andy Murray made light work of Andreas Seppi in Rome

A routine win looked on the cards when top seed Federer took the opening set 6-2, but the Latvian suddenly upped his game and claimed a 2-6, 6-1, 7-5 win in two hours three minutes.

But Dunblane's Andy Murray rediscovered his form with a straight-sets victory over Italy's Andreas Seppi.

Murray was making his fifth appearance at the event, but only previously progressed when Juan Martin Del Potro withdrew with a back injury in 2008 and lost in the first round in 2006, 2007 and last year to Juan Monaco.

The Scot appeared to have recovered from a recent wobble and had no such trouble this time around, seeing off the challenge of Seppi 6-2, 6-4 in one hour 20 minutes.

The 22-year-old is seeded four in Rome and will next meet Potito Starace or David Ferrer, the 13th seed a 6-4, 6-1 winner over Evgeny Korolev of Kazakhstan.

Murray had beaten Seppi, the world No.47, on three successive occasions and lost only once to the Italian, in Nottingham in 2006. Seppi was broken early on in the first set and Murray claimed a second break soon after before closing out the set by winning 91 per cent of points on his first serve.

His groundstrokes were also back to their best and he ruthlessly exploited any Seppi error, taking an early break in the second set courtesy of a supreme backhand down the line.

From 2-0 up, the next seven games went with serve before Murray served for the match.

Seppi gave the crowd something to cheer with a winner down the line as he chased down a lob and fired through his legs, but Murray then earned two match points. Murray prevailed at the second opportunity to go through.

Federer, meanwhile, broke service twice in an one-sided first set despite not being on top form, but Gulbis turned the match on its head in the second.

He converted two of five break-point chances as Federer won just 11 per cent of points on his second serve. And the Latvian broke twice more in the decider as Federer, who will defend his French Open title next month, made just 46 per cent of first serves to crash out of the tournament.