Federer out

Roger Federer said "time was ticking" in his battle to recover form and fitness for the French Open after he lost to rising Austrian Dominic Thiem 7-6 (2) 6-4 in the third round of the Italian Open on Thursday.

Former world No 1 Federer still looks way short of his best after knee and back injuries and struggled to get to grips with the 22-year-old Thiem at the Foro Italico, a week after withdrawing from the Madrid Open.

Thiem, ranked 15th, recovered from an early break and streaked into a 6-2 lead in the tiebreak before taking the opening set with a backhand winner.

He broke the 34-year-old Federer's serve again midway through the second set as he claimed the 32nd victory of a breakthrough season that saw him rise to a career-high 13th.

Federer, the winner of 17 majors, has missed 10 weeks of the season following knee surgery. He shrugged off the defeat, saying his immediate priority was the French Open that begins on May 22.

"This is like, 'who cares about the results here?'. It matters what comes now in the next couple of months," Federer told a news conference.

"Now obviously time starts ticking more towards Paris. Clearly the way I'm playing right now is never going to be enough for a good run in Paris ... I'm still confident I will be fine somehow."

Federer, a four-time finalist in Rome, missed last week's Madrid Open with a back problem but said there had been some encouraging signs this week.

World No 1 Novak Djokovic was on the wrong end of a love set for only the ninth time in his career, picking up just eight points.

From there, though, he moved to a smooth victory over the 37th-ranked Belluci and a quarterfinal meeting with Rafael Nadal, who defeated Australian Nick Kyrgios 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-4.