MADRID: Roger Federer will face a potentially tricky second round tie at the Madrid Masters against Radek Stepanek after the Czech cruised through his opening match against Juan Monaco on Sunday.

Stepanek booked his place against the tournament second seed with a 6-1, 6-1 thrashing of the Argentine Monaco.

Top seed Rafael Nadal — the 2005 champion who has lost in the quarter-finals at the last two Madrid Masters — will face Latvian Ernests Gulbis, who ousted German Nicolas Kiefer 5-7, 6-4, 7-5.

Federer took a break from the sport after winning the US Open and helping Switzerland through a Davis Cup tie last month against Belgium. He said he would not fix a date for his return to tennis, saying he wanted to wait until all signs of his glandular fever were gone.

But, after just a week or so at his training base in Dubai, the 13-time grand slam champion made the call to return.

Federer holds a 5-2 record over Stepanek, but lost to the Czech in the Rome quarter-finals last May in a pair of tie-break sets. Federer got his revenge three months later with a US Open third-round victory.

Federer is keen to lift his first Masters series title of the year. At last year’s event he was beaten in the final by Argentina’s David Nalbandian, taking the Swiss’s record at Madrid to 14 wins and three losses.

The race is on at Madrid for the last four places in the eight-man Masters Cup in November, but Nalbandian goes into the tournament on good form after winning the Stockholm Open on Sunday.

Nalbandian came from nowhere a year ago, winning at both Madrid and Paris Bercy. The seventh-seeded Argentine is in a similar position this year, standing 26th before his Stockholm success.

Nadal, Federer, Serbian Novak Djokovic and Britain’s Andy Murray have already qualified for the year-ender.