Gasquet ousts Murray

Rome - World No 4 Andy Murray's French Open build-up suffered another setback on Thursday when he was dumped out of the Rome Masters in the third round by France's Richard Gasquet.

Gasquet won 6-7 (1/7), 6-3, 6-2 after almost three hours of action to move into the quarter-finals.

Murray had to skip last week's Madrid Masters because of back pain and even in his opening win here over David Nalbandian, he grabbed at his back on numerous occasions.

The French Open begins in Paris on May 27.

Latest results from the fourth day of the Rome Masters tournament on Thursday (x denotes seeding):

Men

Third round

Novak Djokovic (SRB x1) bt Juan Monaco (ARG x14) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3
David Ferrer (ESP x6) bt Gilles Simon (FRA x11) 6-0, 7-6 (7/5)
Richard Gasquet (FRA x16) bt Andy Murray (GBR x4) 6-7 (1/7), 6-3, 6-2
Tomas Berdych (CZE x7) bt Nicolas Almagro (ESP x12) 7-6 (7/3), 6-3
Rafael Nadal (ESP x2) bt Marcel Granollers (ESP) 6-1, 6-1

Women

Third round

Dominika Cibulkova (SVK x14) bt Victoria Azarenka (BLR x1) - walkover
Angelique Kerber (GER x12) bt Julia Goerges (GER) 6-4, 6-1
Petra Kvitova (CZE x4) bt Sorana Cirstea (ROM) 6-2, 5-7, 6-2
Serena Williams (USA x9) bt Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) 6-3, 6-1
Flavia Pennetta (ITA) bt Petra Cetkovska (CZE) 6-0, 6-1
Venus Williams (USA) bt Samantha Stosur (AUS x5) 6-4, 6-3