Roger Federer has not endured a season without winning at least one of the nine Masters Series tournaments since 2003 and those many moons ago he still went out with a heck of a flourish, winning the year-ending Masters Cup for the first time, losing just one set in five matches in the process.

As he flies into Madrid today for next week's Mutua Madrilena Masters, the penultimate of 2008's nine events, Federer will hope that the way he feels and the prevailing conditions that ought to favour him - the Pabellon de Cristal is 650 metres above sea level and the ball flies quicker through the air than at many venues - offer enough stimulation for him to continue on through the remainder of his appointed programme for the year.

For Federer is not of a mind to keep putting himself on the rack if he is not able to give fully of himself on court and that will determine which of his last three scheduled events, Basel, Paris Bercy and Shanghai, which hosts the Masters Cup for the final time, he will play in. To all intents and purposes, Federer's participation for the rest of this year will depend how well he thinks he will play in a given week.

"Without a doubt it's a wonderful thing knowing we can count on Roger Federer being here for another year," Manolo Santana, the Madrid tournament chairman said yesterday of the Swiss who won the title in 2006 and was beaten in last year's final by David Nalbandian, of Argentina. Santana will have been more anxious than most when he learned that Federer would sidestep this week's IF Stockholm Open and announced at the time that he did not know how much more tennis he would play in '08.

This period of indecision stems from the bout of glandular fever Federer suffered at the start of the year, which threw a spanner into the training routines that are the core reason for him remaining as the world No.1 for as long as he did (Rafael Nadal of Spain replaced him last month after 237 consecutive weeks at the top of the tree). The reason the US Open champion pulled from Stockholm was simply that he did not feel he could do himself justice on court and that is not the way he approaches his tennis.

Nadal will receive his world No1 trophy from the ATP at a special presentation on Sunday and then attempt to win the title for the first time since 2005. Nadal learned last night that the Davis Cup final between Argentina and Spain will be played next month at Mar Del Plata - the biggest seaside resort in Argentina, some 250 miles south of Buenos Aires - on an indoor hard court in an attempt to negate the world No.1's talents which are not quite as overwhelming on hard courts as they would be on clay.

"This was one of the most challenging decisions we have made during my ten years on the Davis Cup Committee," said Spain's Juan Margets, Executive Vice President of the ITF which owns and manages the competition. "There were many factors to consider including the wishes of the players to play on an indoor hard court, the feasibility of increasing the venue to the 12,000 seat minimum required in the regulations and other factors that contribute to the success of a Davis Cup Final," he said.