Henman cruises into third round

Tim Henman today eased into the third round of the Australian Open with a routine victory over Romania’s Victor Hanescu.

Henman recorded a 7-5 6-1 6-4 win in just under two hours and now faces Russian Nikolay Davydenko in the last 32 in Melbourne.

The seventh seed will be hoping that is a good omen as he chases a first grand slam title. On both occasions he has played Davydenko previously, he has gone on to win the tournament – in Washington and Paris in 2003.

The 6ft 6in Hanescu unsurprisingly has a decent serve but possessed little else to worry Henman, who had never played the world number 88 before.

He would have been aware however that Hanescu lost to Britain’s Ian Flanagan, ranked 866th in the world, in the second round at Queen’s last year, and a comfortable victory looked on the cards after Henman recovered from losing his serve early in the first set.

Two breaks of serve gave the British number one the second set 6-1.

Henman had been in a similarly dominant position against Cyril Saulnier in the first round before losing his way, and he let slip four chances to break in the opening game of the third set today.

He was also forced to save three break points on his own serve to stay on level terms before finally achieving the crucial break in the ninth game.