Henman made certain of a semi-final place with a 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (4-7) 6-2 win over Spain's Alex Corretja.

Rusedski lacked his usual venom but was still good enough to overcome Albert Costa 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 in a match between two players brought into the event as replacements.

Ian Carter describes Henman's moment of victory (BBC Radio 5 Live)

British number one Henman, who beat Marcelo Rios 7-5 6-1 in his opening round robin match, avenged a defeat by Corretja at last year's Paris Indoor Open in their only previous meeting.

He should have won in straight sets after breaking twice to take a 3-1 lead in the second but unforced errors began to creep into his game and Corretja levelled the match.

There was a marked contrast in style with Henman moving to the net whenever possible to put pressure on his baseliner opponent, but neither man was threatened on serve in the opening set.

The tiebreak tipped in Henman's favour when Corretja struck an attempted pass wide to trail 3-2 and he wrapped it up with a 201kph ace - his third of the set.

Henman: "The first set was really intense"

The Spaniard tried to vary his tactics at the start of the second set and achieved the first break in the opening game.

Henman's response was to break back immediately and he went 3-1 ahead when Corretja tamely double faulted in his next service game.

The match swung again as Corretja broke back with a forehand down the line and he proved the strongest in the tiebreak after winning the first point against serve with a superb backhand top-spin lob.

Corretja relaxed too much at the start of the decider and Henman seized the initiative to take command of the match.

Rusedski: Aims to put one over on Henman

Rusedski got his chance when Andre Agassi withdrew from the tournament on Wednesday and was expecting to play Rios.

But he found himself staring across the net at Costa after the world number two pulled out at short notice because of a sore back.

Rusedski was slow to make his superiority on indoor surfaces count and squandered nine set points in the opener before finally taking it with an angled backhand volley.

Rusedski: "I was expecting a left-hander"

The second set was far less trouble as he broke serve four times to keep his own hopes of a semi-final place alive. Rusedski now has to beat Henman and rely on Costa defeats Corretja if he is to make it into the last four.