Big guns out but Nadal cruises through

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Rome Masters draw

Federer offers no excuses

Re-LIVE the day in Rome

The third round of the Rome Masters provided two big upsets as both Roger Federer and Andy Roddick crashed out but Rafael Nadal marched on.

World number one Federer looked out-of-sorts in the face of an excellent performance from Italian wildcard Filippo Volandri , while Roddick was convincingly beaten by Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela. Both matches required just two sets to be settled.

Nadal then performed superbly on the late shift to destroy Mikhail Youzhny 6-2 6-2.

On the Campo Centrale, Volandri delighted the home crowd with the performance of his life to set up a quarter final clash with Thomas Berdych with a straight set 6-2 6-4 win.

"What I've done here will only sink in tomorrow. This is the best court in the world. The crowd were fabulous," said Volandri.

"I played a perfect match and pushed all the way to the end. I couldn't ask anything more of myself."

But much of the talk will centre on Federer, who struggled throughout the match and failed to live up to his top seed ranking as he made unforced error after unforced error.

The Swiss player made an incredible 44 in total, while a first serve success rate of just 44% had much to do with his capitulation.

"It's disappointing to lose as always," Federer told Sky Sports. "I didn't play well at all. I couldn't get my game together.

"There's not much I'm happy about today. I have no excuses." [STORY: Federer offers no excuses]  

Volandri, roared on by a partisan local crowd, was quickly in the lead, breaking twice in the first three games to take a 3-0 lead early on and Federer never really recovered, despite briefly rallying at the start of the second set.

"The crowd is one factor," Federer continued. "If I had played decent I would be in the match. Both the crowd and opponent were tough today."

The loss puts paid to any hopes Federer had of winning his first Rome Masters title, and the Swiss has now gone four tournaments without a title - his longest stretch without a title since becoming world number one in February 2004.

Meanwhile, Italian hopes of seeing a second representative in the quarter finals were dashed when Potito Starace succumbed to world number four Nikolay Davydenko in a gruelling but entertaining match.

The Russian eventually ran out a 4-6 6-2 7-5 winner, but the tie was evenly balanced right up until the last, with Starare pushing the under-pressure Davydenko all the way and showing remarkable determination to break back at 5-3 down in the third set.

Gilles Simon, who had already knocked out Andy Murray and Guillermo Canas, finally saw his run in the tournament come to an end as he fell to a 6-2 6-2 defeat at the hands of seventh seed Tommy Robredo, and the Spaniard plays Davydenko next.

There were concerns that Nadal could come unstuck against Youzhny as he had lost his last two meetings with the Russian.

However, he was never in even remote danger of seeing his record run on clay cracked, with his run now extended to 74 matches.

Nadal never even gave up a break point in the match, while he had 14 chances to break Youzhny - four of which he took.

"I played a near-perfect match today," admitted Nadal, who when asked whether Federer's exit had cleared his way to equal Thomas Muster's professional era record of three Rome titles, replied: "No. I don't think so. There are still some very difficult matches to come"

Next up for the "king of clay" is fifth seed Novak Djokovic who staged a remarkable second set comeback to defeat Marcos Baghdatis 6-2 7-5.

After breaking the Cypriot player three times to take the first set, the Serb teenager found himself 5-1 down in the second set.

However, he then reeled off six games in a row, including a dramatic final game that he won on Baghdatis' serve despite blowing a 0-40 advantage early in the game.

In the first match of the day on the centre court, third seed Roddick was convincingly beaten 6-0 6-4 by Chela .

It was a distinctly off-day for the number three seed and he never looked at ease on the clay at the Foro Italico in the Italian capital.

But credit must go to Chela, who raced out of the blocks in bright sunshine to inflict only a fifth career bagel on Roddick to take the first set to love. The last time the American suffered such a scoreline was against world number one Roger Federer at the Australian Open earlier this year.

A brief return to form from Roddick at the beginning of the second set was short lived and he could only hold his serve until the seventh game, when Chela broke once more to set up victory on his third match point.

Chela's victory puts him in the quarter-finals at the Rome Masters for the first time in his career, where he will play Chiles' Fernando Gonzalez, who beat compatriot Nicolas Massu in three sets 7-6 6-3 6-4.

Czech player Tomas Berdych had no problems in crusing past JoseAcasuso of Argentina with a 6-1 6-2 win, and now faces what is certain to be a much tougher test against Volandri, and the Roman crowd.