Henman finds his lucky charm

Henman's second-round match in Melbourne was a formality against Hanescu, ranked 88th, who managed to lose to Britain's Ian Flanagan, the world No866 at Queen's last year.

Henman - four times a semi-finalist at Wimbledon - did conspire to lose his second service game of the first set. However the seventh seed broke back in the fourth game and the rest of the set went with serve as the large contingent of British fans in the crowd sporadically burst into chants of "Tim Henman's Barmy Army".

That must have bemused the 6ft 6ins Romanian, who handed over his serve along with the set as the British right hander dominated at the net. He broke Hanescu twice in each of the next two sets to claim a simple victory.

The Barmy Army have had a great week at the championships and have a lot to cheer at the moment. Following Henman's success, the talk was of watching Elena Baltacha tomorrow as she attempts to reach the third round by beating veteran Italian Silvia Farina Elia.

But for now the crowd were just happy to enjoy a straight-sets win for the British No1.

Henman last week decided to retire from the Davis Cup so he could focus on his singles' quests and in particular his bid to finally win his first Gran Slam.

He takes scouting reports from coach Paul Annacone and knows that at 30 he will not have many more realistic chances to get to an Australian Open final. In previous years, Chris Woodruff, Jonas Bjorkman and, last year, Guillermo Canas have all blocked Henman's path at Melbourne Park just when it looked like he would make the last eight.

Canas, the 12th seed from Argentina, came back from two sets down to beat the Briton, and he could be waiting for him again should both players come through their thirdround encounters.

"I think my game's come a long way [since losing to Canas] and I feel like I've got a good style to beat him as well," said Henman.

LLEYTON HEWITT breathed a massive sigh of relief after battling past American James Blake.
Australia's Hewitt lost the first set and was a set point down in the second before winning the tie-break.
Blake, who broke his neck last year, injured his hand in a dive on the final point of the tie-break and was never able to reproduce his best form.
Hewitt won 4-6, 7-6, 6-0, 6-3 and now faces Juan Ignacio Chela.
Blake said: "I look at the big picture. If I had hit my head differently, I could have been paralysed. Being in a tiebreaker with one of the best players in the world is what I missed."

RAFAEL NADAL struggled past Mikhail Youzhny in a match lasting three hours and 38 minutes.
Youzhny led by two sets to one and 2-0 in the fourth before receiving lengthy treatment on his left thigh.
Nadal saved a match point to take the set 7-5 and the 18-year-old Spaniard then took the decider to seal a 6-1, 4-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory.

GUILLERMO CORIA, seeded six, needed almost four hours to beat Brazil's Ricardo Mello 6-4 6-7 6-3 7-6.
Meanwhile, 14th seed Sebastian Grosjean suffered a shock defeat to fellow Frenchman and qualifier Jean-Rene Lisnard.

NICOLAS MASSU was earlier forced to retire hurt during his secondround match.
The Olympic champion lost the first set 6-0 and was 2-0 down in the second to Phillip Kohlschreiber when he withdrew with an ankle injury.
The same problem caused the Chilean to pull out of the Kooyong exhibition event in Melbourne last week and the 18th seed also received treatment on his back during his first round win over Anthony Dupuis.
Andrei Pavel, the 17th seed, followed Massu out of the tournament, suffering a shock defeat to American qualifier Bobby Reynolds.