Bagdahtis sends Federer crashing out of Indian Wells Masters

ROGER Federer was sent crashing out of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells Tennis Centre as Marcos Bagdahtis snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

DUMPED OUT: World number one Roger Federer admits he is short of match practice after being dumped out of the Indian Wells Masters by Marcos Bagdahtis (Getty Images)

The world number one was cruising at 4-1 in the final set but having fended off three match points, former Australian Open runner-up Bagdahtis recovered to win 5-7, 7-5, 7-6.

The Cypriot is no stranger to Federer, with the Swiss player having beaten him in all six previous meetings, including the 2006 Australian Open final.

But in his first tournament since lifting his fourth title in Melbourne in January, the world number one struggled to keep up with his opponent's intensity at crucial points in the match.

Federer's first two match points came in the second set as Bagdahtis served to stay in the match at 5-4 down.

But instead of Federer sealing the match with typical aplomb, the Cypriot dug deep to reel off the next four points before breaking and serving out the set.

A similar situation arose in the decider as Federer raced to a 4-1 lead before being broken back and had a match point at 6-5 before Bagdahtis forced and won a final set tie-break.

And having missed February with a lung infection, Federer admitted a lack of match practice had hampered his consistency in California.

"It was a decent match, but maybe wrong choices at the wrong time for me," said Federer, who will look to bounce back at the Sony Ericsson Open Masters in Miami.

"Maybe going for too much, maybe playing too passively. That's not something you can really work on. That comes through playing matches, and that's what I need.

"I hope to get more of it in Miami, but I will definitely play a lot of practice sets, that's for sure, until then.

"I think as the tournament would have gone forward I would have found my groove more and more, and who knows what would have happened?

"It's something that always is tough, coming from a long layover and all of a sudden playing matches. But, the season is long. There's no need to panic here."

Elsewhere, fourth seed Andy Murray overcame a resilient Michael Russell, to book his place in the last 16 and there were straight set wins for sixth seed Robin Soderling and seventh seed Andy Roddick.

Meanwhile, in the women's draw, second seed Caroline Wozniacki beat Russia's Nadia Petrova 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 to reach the quarter finals in Indian Wells.

Wozniacki will face China's Jie Zheng in the last eight after she downed Elena Baltacha's conqueror, Australia's Alicia Molik 6-3, 4-6, 7-6.

There were also routine straight-set victories for fourth seed Elena Dementieva, fifth seed Agnieszka Radwanska and sixth seed Jelena Jankovic in California.