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 quarter-finals with a straight sets win over Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.

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