Henman handed easy draw

Tim Henman was today handed a comfortable route through to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon.

The British No1 has been drawn against Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, a Spanish clay-court specialist, in the first round and his only major obstacle before the last eight appears to be Mark Philippoussis.

Henman lost to the bigserving Australian in the fourth round four years ago but last year's Wimbledon finalist is woefully out of form.

Henman, 29, seeded five, will also be happy to have missed a potential quarter-final clash with Roger Federer or Andy Roddick. Instead, today's All England Club draw placed him in the same quarter as 2002 runner-up David Nalbandian.

The Argentine may be seeded one place higher but should not worry Henman too much after the world No6 defeated him in the tournament last year.

Federer, the No1 seed, will start the defence of his title on Centre Court against British No8 Alex Bogdanovic, who was handed a wildcard for the event. Should the Swiss favourite come through his section of the draw he is set to face a "battle of the champions" quarter-final with Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 winner.

Roddick, meanwhile, will have to wait for the results of this week's qualifying competition in Roehampton to find out the identity of his first-round opponent.

Greg Rusedski, who has returned to form at the Nottingham Open and today plays former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson for a place in the semi-finals, is in the same position, having also been drawn against a qualifier.