Radek Stepanek scored a stunning victory over an out-of-sorts Roger Federer, the world No1, 7-6, 7-6 on Friday to qualify for the semi-finals of the Rome Masters.

It was only Stepanek’s second victory over Federer in six matches but he was in great form as he made the most of his opponent’s erratic play. It means that both top seeds are out of the tournament following Rafael Nadal’s equally-surprising defeat to Juan Carlos Ferrero on Wednesday.

The first set went with serve and few break opportunities until the tie-break. Federer gained the first mini-break but the Czech soon levelled and grasped the advantage with a sublime drop volley before serving out the set 7-4 in the breaker.

Any thoughts of an immediate Federer response were quashed in the second game of the second set as Stepanek broke serve, which was confirmed when his opponent shanked a backhand wide.

Stepanek was in inspired form and giving Federer almost no opportunities to break his serve, regularly hitting the lines and serving brilliantly. However at 4-2 he played his worst service game of the match. From 15-15 he netted one backhand then went long with another to give Federer a 40-15 lead. He saved the first break point as Federer’s backhand misfired again, but Stepanek crumbled on the next point, netting a seemingly simple backhand volley.

However Federer’s backhand then deserted him in the next game and two wild errors gifted the Czech player another break advantage and a 5-3 lead.

Serving for the match, though, Stepanek again showed nerves and three errors gave Federer a break chance that he seized by advancing to the net and dispatching a clinical backhand volley.

Both held to set up the tie-break which Federer began with two stunning passing shots, one off each side, to gain the mini-break. He pulled off a second after a marathon rally in which he produced a brilliant defensive lob that had Stepanek scampering back from his attacking position before later firing a backhand wide.

But despite leading 4-1, Federer was broken back twice for 5-5. He saved one match point at 7-6 but was immediately broken again and with the next match point on the Czech’s serve, Federer was unable to pull off the great escape and went down 9-7 in the second breaker.