DHAKA: Roger Federer's wife Mirka has given birth to their second set of twins.

On Tuesday, the Swiss world number four pulled out of this week's Madrid Masters tournament to be with his wife for the birth.

"Mirka and I are so incredibly happy to share that Leo and Lenny were born this evening," tweeted Federer, who will likely miss next week's Rome Masters.

The 32-year-old, the 17-time Grand Slam champion, already has four-year-old twin girls Myla Rose and Charlene Riva.

The year's second Grand Slam, the French Open - which Federer won in 2009 - starts on 25 May.

Federer, who won the last of his Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon in 2012, last played three weeks ago when he lost to countryman Stanislas Wawrinka in the final of the Monte-Carlo Masters.

In Madrid on Tuesday, third seed Wawrinka, the Australian Open champion, lost 1-6 6-2 6-4 to Austrian qualifier Dominic Thiem, while fifth seed David Ferrer beat fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos 7-6 (8-6) 5-7 6-3.

Spain's Nicolas Almagro needed 11 match points to beat Andrey Golubev 6-3 6-7 (9-11) 7-6 (7-4) and set up a second-round match against Britain's Andy Murray on Wednesday.

In the women's tournament, eighth seed Maria Sharapova came back from 4-1 down in the final set to beat American Christina McHale 6-1 4-6 6-4 in round two, while China's second seed Li Na beat compatriot Chinese Zheng Jie 6-2 6-3.

Source: BBC

BDST: 0926 HRS, MAY 07, 2014