Tennis: Winning start for Henman

Tim Henman made a winning start to the Tennis Masters Series in Indian Wells by beating Germany's Rainer Schuttler.

Henman, seeded 10th for the California tournament, looked on course for a quick win after taking the first set 6-2.

His opponent fought back to claim the second set 7-5 before Henman needed to hold his nerve to claim the third set and victory on a tie-break.

Henman looked nervous when serving for the match at 5-4 in the third set, double-faulting and producing three unforced errors to let Schuttler back into the match.

But he won five of the last seven points to take the tie-break 7-4 and will now play former Wimbledon finalist Cedric Pioline, of France, in the second round.

Later, Greg Rusedski suffered a quick-fire defeat to Australian Pat Rafter.

The two-time US Open winner made short work of the Canadian-born Briton by winning in straight sets for the loss of just five games.

Rafter was always on top and ran out a 6-3 6-2 winner.