Events / Editor / 10 May 2007 /

First it was Guillermo Canas in Indian Wells and Miami, now it is Italian Filippo Volandri who has upset Roger Federer.

Wild card Volandri toppled the world number one and top seed 6-2 6-4 - helped by an unprecedented number of Federer errors - to reach the last eight of the Rome Masters.

The 25-year-old's reward is a quarter-final against 12th seed Czech Tomas Berdych on Centre Court at Foro Italico.
It is the first time an Italian player has reached the last eight in Rome since Volandri lost to Federer in 2003, in their only previous meeting before Thursday.

Federer, with 44 unforced errors, suffered a serious dent to his build-up to the French Open - the one Major he has yet to win. It was his heaviest defeat of the year and his heaviest of all since Rafael Nadal beat him 6-3 6-3 in Miami in 2004.

Federer has just next week's Hamburg Masters, where he is a three-times winner, to pick up the pieces with Roland Garros looming at the end of the month. Having traded at to small stakes at 2.4, Federer has drifted to 4.3 in the French Open winner's market.

The Swiss ace admitted: "I had a bad start to the match. But I had been practising more than anyone here in Rome. My preparation was perfect. I played a good first round so, of course, it's disappointing to play like this."

But he insisted: "Filippo played well. He made it hard for me. Everybody's talking about how I played but give the guy some credit."

Volandri will be buoyant going into the clash with Berdych. This was only his eighth win of the year and he is ranked at number 53 in the world.

Volandri has yet to reach an ATP semi-final - but today is his big chance in front of his own Italian fans. But the form guide is against him as he bids to become the first Italian since Adriano Panatta in 1978 to reach the last four in Rome (Panatta lost to Bjorn Borg in the final).

He has met Berdych four times and won only once, in their first contest back in 2004. All their matches have been on clay and Berdych has won the last three, including two last year.

All four meetings have been settled in straight sets and Berdych, who knocked out Argentina's Jose Acasuso 6-1 6-2 to reach the last eight, is trading at 1.54 on Betfair to burst Volandri's bubble. The man from Livorno can be backed at 2.8 to continue his run.

In contrast to Federer, the Rafael Nadal show just marches on. Despite suffering dizziness and needing a hospital check the day before, he was far too steady for 15th seed Mikhail Youzhny and won 6-2 6-2 to notch his 74th consecutive win on clay.

The Spaniard, 1.32 to win the Rome title, now faces 19-year-old Serbian whiz kid Novak Djokovic after the Miami winner beat Marcos Baghdatis 6-2 7-5.

This is the pick of the quarter-finals with the two players having met three times in the last 12 months. Second seed Nadal won in Rome last year on the way to retaining his French title and won again at the opening Masters event of the year in Indian Wells.

Fifth seed Djokovic avenged the Indian Wells defeat just over a week later in the quarter-finals of the Miami Masters, on the way to beating Canas in the final.

All three matches have been settled in straight sets and Nadal is on offer at 1.13 to keep his record run going as he continues his French Open preparations, with Djokovic available to back at 8.4.

The other big last 16 shock in Italy was the exit of American third seed Andy Roddick. He lost 6-0 6-4 to Juan Ignacio Chela and the Argentine player will now meet Fernando Gonzalez in the quarter-finals, after the Chilean took three hours to dispose of fellow countryman Nicolas Massu 6-7 6-3 6-4.

Chela and Gonzalez have met five times with Chela leading 3-2. But they haven't faced each other since the start of 2005 and since then, sixth seed Gonzalez has soared into the world's top ten. He is easing back into his Australian Open form of January and is trading at 2.24 to beat his 6ft 3in opponent - Chelsea is the 1.79 favourite.

The other quarter-final is between Nikolay Davydenko and Tommy Robredo.

Fourth seed Davydenko beat Italian Potito Starace 4-6 6-2 7-5 in the last round, while seventh seed Robredo dropped just nine points on serve in overpowering Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-2 6-2.

Davydenko leads Robredo 3-1 in previous encounters, having won their last two meetings, but on clay they stand 1-1. Davydenko can be backed at 2.14 to reach the semi-finals with Robredo on offer at 1.86.

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