Federer back from long break in Madrid

Five weeks after winning his 12th Grand Slam singles title, Roger Federer returns to tournament tennis this week as defending champion in the Madrid Masters.
Aside from a long weekend on Davis Cup duty last month for Switzerland, the world No. 1 has taken a well deserved break before heading indoors for the rest of the season. In Madrid - as in New York - he may well find Novak Djokovic facing him in another final rather than world No. 2 Rafael Nadal .

Nadal took the title in Madrid two years ago but lost in the quarterfinals to Tomas Berdych in the midst of a relatively poor run by comparison with his great exploits in the first half of last year. Twelve months on a similar story is developing for the Spanish favorite, and the knee problems he has suffered for the last three months may continue to undermine him.

Although he won his sixth title of the season in Stuttgart in July, in hindsight Nadal's decision to play there so soon after that epic final at Wimbledon - in which he needed treatment on his knee - may have been a wrong one.

Bearing in mind the wear and tear already exerted on his body in another colossal claycourt campaign, his form has dipped markedly since Stuttgart - a semifinal loss to Djokovic in Montreal that preceded an early loss in Cincinnati and a fourth-round exit from the U.S. Open at the hands of fellow Spaniard David Ferrer .

Nadal has not competed since then, whereas Djokovic has won two more matches in Davis Cup for Serbia and claimed his fifth title of the season last week in Vienna, dropping only one set in the process. Entering Madrid, Djokovic leads the tour with 65 match wins so far this year compared to Nadal's 62 and Federer's 54.

Federer, though, remains the man to beat, having reached the finals in all of his last six events, winning four of them. It might well have been more had he also played as originally planned in Tokyo after last month's Davis Cup tie against the Czech Republic, but he felt he needed more rest.

"I was supposed to go to Tokyo but I had so much muscle pain in my chest, in my legs, and I was just really drained from the whole U.S. Open Series as well as the U.S. Open," Federer said. "So I preferred to take a rest, not to take a chance on health and I was just home for 2 1/2 weeks. I didn't do anything for over 10 days so I really got to relax and I've just taken up practice lately again, and I'm feeling OK in practice but I still need a few days to really feel fine."

First in the firing line for Federer will be American qualifier Robby Ginepri before a possible rematch with his Indian Wells and Miami nemesis, Guillermo Canas .

In the bottom half of the draw, Djokovic will start his bid for more Masters Series success against Spain's Fernando Verdasco , while Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis gets first crack at Nadal.

If Nadal wins that, Britain's Andy Murray might face him in what could be a thrilling rematch following their first encounter at this year's Australian Open, which went the distance. Murray, who has since "cleared the air" with Nadal after the Spaniard was among those who criticized the Briton last week for comments he made about alleged "match-fixing" in the sport, let his racket do the talking in his first match in Madrid.

Just a couple of months into his comeback from a serious wrist injury, Murray impressively snuffed out the threat of Czech Radek Stepanek with a 6-4, 6-1 victory Monday.

"I think I've played like 10 or 11 matches or something since I've came back from injury, which isn't a lot really," Murray said. "To be playing like I am in such few matches since my injury is really good. I feel, after that match, I felt it started to click.

"I've been getting pretty good in practice this week leading up to the tournament. This kind of performance is going to give me confidence for the rest of the year."

Ironically, the man whom Murray beat to face Nadal in Melbourne was Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela , his next opponent in Madrid.