Roger Federer will face a revived challenge from Rafael Nadal when the Swiss world number one defends his title at the Sony Ericsson Open which starts today.

While Federer was practising in Miami after losing in the second round of last week's Pacific Life Open to Guillermo Canas, Nadal was breaking a nine-month title drought.

Spain's twice French Open champion claimed his first trophy since last year at Roland Garros with a 6-2 7-5 victory over Serb Novak Djokovic in the Indian Wells final on Sunday.

Federer, Nadal and the other seeds received byes into the Miami second round. Federer, whose 41-match winning streak was ended by Canas, begins his campaign on Saturday.

Nadal's first opponent in the Masters Series event will be either Czech Jan Hernych or a qualifier.

Nadal is bursting with confidence, though he still lags way behind Federer in the rankings.

"Right now I am number two and Roger is number one and far away from the others," Nadal told reporters at Indian Wells.

"Roger is the best in history.

"For sure, my goal is to continue winning tournaments. If I play like this, I can win another major."

The women's event will be missing twice semi-finalist Amelie Mauresmo. She underwent emergency appendix surgery over the weekend in France and is expected to be out of action for a month.

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