Roger Federer has made it into the third round of the Madrid Masters with a 6-2 7-6 (8-6) victory over Radek Stepanek.
The Wimbledon 2008 runner-up and world number two Federer rallied from 5-3 down in the tie-break to win on his return from a five-week break.
Novak Djokovic survived a testing second round match at the Madrid Masters on Wednesday after rival Victor Hanescu retired injured, while fifth seed Nikolay Davydenko was knocked out by American qualifier Robby Ginepri.
Davydenko's 4-6 6-4 6-4 defeat was a major blow as the Russian is chasing one of the four remaining places in next month's eight-man Masters Cup in Shanghai and it came hot on the heels of his quarter-final exit from last week's Kremlin Cup.
Ginepri next meets Frenchman Gilles Simon, who put out 11th seed James Blake on Tuesday.
Third seed Djokovic, meanwhile, was pushed hard by Romanian world number 73 Hanescu.
The first two sets were decided in tight tiebreaks, with Hanescu grabbing the first 10-8 and the Serb sealing the second 8-6 when he pounced on a tame volley to slash a cross-court winner.
Both players held their serves at the start of the decider but at 1-1 Hanescu called a medical time out for a groin injury. He was immediately broken in the next game and battled on for one more game before he retired hurt at 3-1.
Fresh from his victory at the Stockholm Open, defending champion David Nalbandian overcame a mid-match wobble to beat Czech Tomas Berdych 6-2 6-7 6-1.
The Argentine will next play Davis Cup team mate Juan Martin del Potro, who went through after Finn Jarkko Nieminen retired during the second set.
Nalbandian said: 'I played well, I feel confident. At the beginning of the second set, I lost control of the ball and my timing was off. After that, I played at a great level.'
He added that Argentina's Davis Cup final against Spain in November, not the end-of-season climax in Shanghai, was his main goal for the rest of the year.
Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the 16th seed, scraped through, winning a third-set tiebreak to beat the impressive Marcel Granollers 3-6 6-3 7-6.
A spectacular leap and overhead backhand volley allowed him to break back and level midway through the third set, before he forced the Spaniard into an error to take the tiebreak 7-5.
Off the court, top seed Rafael Nadal said he was withdrawing from the doubles event, where he is playing with Carlos Moya, after aggravating a lower back injury.
However, the Spaniard, who was taken to three sets by Latvia's Ernests Gulbis on Tuesday remains in the main draw where he plays France's Richard Gasquet in the third round.
