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Early exit for Federer

Monte Carlo - Roger Federer was left free to enjoy the rest of his honeymoon Thursday when he was knocked out of the Monte Carlo Masters by Swiss compatriot and Olympic gold medal-winning partner Stanislas Wawrinka.

World number two Federer, without a title in 2009 and desperately short of form and confidence, went down 6-4, 7-5 to the 13th seed in the third round.

"I didn't have enough preparation before coming here, but that applies for everyone," said Federer. "It's not an excuse."

Federer, who got married to long-time girlfriend Mirka Vavrinec at the weekend, had originally decided to skip this event, but accepted a late wildcard in the hope of finding his claycourt game in the run-up to the French Open.

He had lost the last three finals to Rafael Nadal.

"I came to see where I was," the former long-time world number one added.

"Now I know that I need to work at training to try to come back more strongly at (the ATP tournament in) Rome (April 27-May 3).

"I'm not too worried because I wasn't expecting much at this tournament. It's not a good result but I didn't expect to dominate everyone here. These two matches have given me information, rather than confidence."

On a day when the start of play was delayed by five hours because of rain, Spain's Fernando Verdasco crushed compatriot David Ferrer 6-2, 6-1 while German Andreas Beck saw off Juan Monaco of Argentina 3-6, 6-2, 7-5.

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