World number 39 Julien Benneteau sent Roger Federer crashing out of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam at the quarter-final stage.
Benneteau, who also beat Federer back in 2009, triumphed 6-3 7-5 over the top-seeded Federer, losing an early break advantage but quickly recovering with the help of some misplaced shots from the Swiss world number two.
Federer, the defending champion in this tournament, was playing in his first event since reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open last month.
Benneteau will now face fifth seed Gilles Simon, who advanced when opponent Martin Klizan retired hurt almost two and a half hours into their quarter-final match.
Simon had battled back to lead 6-7 (6/8) 6-3 3-0 before Klizan took his exit.
Grigor Dimitrov racked up 18 straight points en route to a 6-7 (4/7) 7-6 (7/0) 6-3 victory over Marcos Baghdatis, recovering from being 6-5 down in the second set to give himself a leg up in the third.
It put the world number 41 through to his second semi-final of the season, where he will face second seed Juan Martin del Potro – a 6-3 6-4 winner over Jarkko Nieminen thanks to a commanding performance that included 10 aces.
