Nalbandian warning to Henman

David Nalbandian fired a warning shot to Tim Henman with an accomplished second round victory over Andre Sa on Court One today.

Last year’s surprise finalist is scheduled to meet the Briton in round four and his 6-2 7-5 6-2 success marked him out as a real threat to home nation hopes.

The 21-year-old sixth seed needs to work on his serve after a match of 13 breaks, but his returns and ground strokes proved too much for his Brazilian opponent – who took a set off Henman before falling in last year’s quarter-finals.

Unlike Sa, Nalbandian has built on his performance a year ago and cracked the world’s top 10.

And unlike his eight fellow Argentinians in the men’s singles draw this year he has grown in stature on grass and hard courts and boasts a run to the Australian Open quarter-finals earlier this year.

Nalbandian broke Sa twice in the opening set to seize the advantage but swapped breaks twice in the second before grabbing the crucial advantage in the 11th game and serving out for the two-set lead.

Despite struggling a little with his first serve percentage Nalbandian produced some searingly accurate ground strokes and leapt onto Sa’s own weak serve.

He broke the Brazilian on all four opportunities in the third set to wrap up an impressive victory.