Cincinnati success for British pair

Tim Henman is seeded seventh in the Cincinnati event

The British pair of Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski faced matches of varying difficulty but both progressed to the second round of the Masters Series in Cincinnati.

Seventh-seeded Henman never hit top form but did enough to see off Michal Tabara in straight sets.

While Rusedski survived a scare before taking a three-set victory over David Prinosil.

Watched by new coach Larry Stefanki, Henman clinched the first set 6-4 after 40 minutes of error-strewn tennis.

Having worked with Larry [Stefanki] for just over two weeks, I think he's got some really good ideas and a hell of a lot of experience

  Tim Henman

And he quickly added the second set 6-2 to close out the match.

"As first round matches go they're never particularly easy but I was pleased," Henman said afterwards.

"I was serving pretty consistently and, considering the heat, I felt like I wasn't making too many unforced errors. I was keeping the points pretty short."

It was Henman's third match since his five-set Wimbledon semi-final loss to eventual champion Goran Ivanisevic.

Henman, a loser to Spaniard Albert Costa in Montreal last week, said his back was giving him problems.

"(My back) wasn't very good after Montreal, although it didn't hurt during the match against Costa," he said.

"I didn't practise for a few days and today it felt 95 percent."

Timely lob

Henman recently began working with coach Larry Stefanki, who has previously trained John McEnroe, Marcelo Rios and Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

"Having worked with Larry for just over two weeks, I think he's got some really good ideas and a hell of a lot of experience.

"I feel confident that I can benefit from that," said Henman, who split with David Felgate, his coach of nine years, in April.

Rusedski, meanwhile, was made to dig deep for his victory.

The British number two trailed Prinosil by a set and 1-4 in the second set tie-break before a remarkable turnaround brought him a 3-6 7-6 6-1 win.

A delightful lob kept Rusedski in contention and the deciding set was surprisingly one-sided as a demoralised Prinosil rolled over tamely.