MADRID, Oct 16: Roger Federer advanced to the third round of the Madrid Masters on Wednesday with a 6-3, 7-6 win over Czech Radek Stepanek on his return from a three-week break.

Serbian third seed Novak Djokovic survived a searching test to beat Romanian Victor Hanescu, while Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko, seeded five, was sent packing by American qualifier Robby Ginepri.

Initially Federer had no such concerns, romping to a 3-0 lead as Stepanek’s serve fell apart.

But the world No 30 stepped up in the second set — winning all but one of the points on his first serve — and seized the advantage in the set decider with a sensational drop shot, before pumping his first wildly in celebration.

Two points later he had even greater impetus as he took a 5-3 lead but could not hold on as Federer applied the pressure to take the tie break 8-6 and win 6-3, 7-6 in one hour and 26 minutes.

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.

In the day’s other upset, Spanish sixth seed David Ferrer was dumped out 6-4, 7-6 by countryman Feliciano Lopez, ranked 35 places below him.

An out-of-sorts Djokovic set up a third round tie against towering Croatian Ivo Karlovic but was pushed hard by Hanescu before the world No 73 was forced to retire with a groin strain when the match was poised at 6-7, 7-6, 3-1.

After the world No 3 sacrificed the first set tie break with a sloppy error and narrowly clinched the second tie break to level, both players held their opening service games in the decider before Hanescu retired two games later.

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 their second set.

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.

Wednesday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Second round: 2-Roger Federer (Switzerland) bt Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) 6-3, 7-6 (8-6); 10-Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5); Feliciano Lopez (Spain) bt 6-David Ferrer (Spain) 6-4, 7-6 (7-4); 9-Juan Martin Del Potro (Argentina) bt Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) 6-2, 4-2 – Nieminen retired 3-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) bt Victor Hanescu (Romania) 6-7 (8-10), 7-6 (8-6), 3-1 — Hanescu retired; Gael Monfils (France) bt 12-Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) 6-3, 6-4; 7-David Nalbandian (Argentina) bt Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1; 14-Ivo Karlovic (Croatia) bt Robin Soederling (Sweden) 7-6 9-(7), 7-6 (10-8); 16-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) bt Marcel Granollers (Spain) 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5); Robby Ginepri (US) bt 5-Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4; 8-Andy Roddick (US) bt Tommy Robredo (Spain) 6-3, 6-4

VENUS ON COURSE

ZURICH: Venus Williams made a successful start to the Zurich Open on Wednesday, beating Ukraine’s Alona Bondarenko 6-3, 6-4 to maintain her hopes of reaching the season-ending WTA Championships.

Williams, seeded third in Zurich and handed a first round bye, broke Bondarenko once in each set to ease into the quarter-finals of the $600,000 hardcourt event.

The Ukrainian world No 33 has now lost all three of her meetings with Williams, although Wednesday’s defeat was by far the closest encounter.

In both their previous matches, at the 2007 and 2008 US Opens, Bondarenko was able to take just three games off the American seven-time Grand Slam singles winner.

Williams’s latest victory keeps her on course to join younger sister Serena at the lucrative season finale in Doha.

Venus is ninth in the race to qualify for the tournament with only the top eight women going through.

Sixth-ranked Maria Shara-pova’s decision to end her season due to a shoulder injury means however that Williams only needs to hold her current position.

Serbian world No 1 and Zurich top seed Jelena Jankovic leads a group of five women who have already made sure of their places at Doha.

Results:

Second round: Francesca Schiavone (Italy) bt Maria Kirilenko (Russia) 6-3, 7-5; 3-Venus Williams (US) bt Alona Bondarenko (Ukraine) 6-3, 6-4.

First round: Katarina Srebotnik (Slovenia) bt Timea Bacsinszky

(Switzerland) 6-3, 6-3; Sofia Arvidsson (Sweden) bt Sybille Bammer (Austria) 0-6, 7-5, 6-4; Flavia Pennetta (Italy) bt Nadia Petrova (Russia) 6-1, 6-1.—Reuters