Henman strolls into quarters

Henman's good start to the year continues

Tim Henman has powered into the quarter-finals of the AAPT Championship with a 6-1 6-4 win over controversial American Jeff Tarango in Adelaide.

Henman, seeded second, continued his impressive build up to the Australian Open, following his 6-2 7-6 beating of Greg Rusedski in the previous round.

"When it's hot like this, it makes conditions pretty fast as well, and that suits me nicely," said Henman.

The British number one said he was feeling optimistic about the Australian Open, which starts in Melbourne on 15 January.

His aim is at least to get past the fourth round for the first time.

I've got to keep maintaining the work on and off the court

  Tim Henman

"That's what I'm definitely setting out to do," he said.

"The way my game has developed over the last 12 months, there's every opportunity to improve on that this year, and I've got to keep maintaining the work on and off the court - and that's why I'm very optimistic."

Recovery

Against Tarango, Henman dominated the court, taking the first set easily and breaking the left-handed American in the fifth game of the second.

He lost concentration in the next game, missing a couple of forehand shots to let Tarango back into play, but recovered quickly for a convincing second-round win.

Henman, ranked 10 in the world, will now play Thomas Johansson in the last eight, after the Swede beat Germany's Christian Vinck 7-5 6-3.

Johansson won his hometown tournament in Stockholm in the ATP's last tournament of 2000 to finish the year ranked 39th.

"He's obviously playing well here. I think we both fancy our chances," Henman said.

Henman has beaten Johansson in both of their previous two encounters, in Basle in 1998 and Seoul in 1996.