Henman holds his nerve

Tim Henman was forced to save a match point

Click here for Thursday's results from Rotterdam

Tim Henman reached the last eight of the ATP Tournament in Rotterdam, with a tight victory over Fabrice Santoro.

The British number one saved a match point on his own serve in a tense final set.

At 4-5 and games going to serve, Santoro took three points in a row to give him advantage.

But Henman survived the scare and went on to break the Frenchman's next service game and held his own to take the match.

Henman had been forced to come from behind in the first set after he lost his first service game.

Santoro held the advantage until he served for the first set at 5-3, but was unable to stay in front as Henman broke back to level the set.

With his tail clearly up, Henman then broke again immediately to 15 giving him the chance to serve for the set.

That he did with little trouble to claim the first set 7-5.

Henman came from behind again in the second set, clawing back a break after losing his service early.

Nicolas Escude is through to the last eight

But Santoro piled on the pressure at 5-4 to break again and take the second set.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov's poor form since the beginning of the year continued when he was beaten in three sets by Croatian Ivan Ljubicic 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 6-3.

Defending champion Nicolas Escude reached the quarter-finals with a 6-1 6-2 win in his first meeting with Spaniard Tommy Robredo.

While British number three Martin Lee was well beaten by fourth seed Sebastien Grosjean 6-0 6-2.

And Arnaud Clement, conqueror of Britain's Greg Rusedski in the previous round, produced another fine display to eliminate fifth seed Thomas Johansson 6-2 6-3.

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Second round results from Rotterdam:

Tim Henman (Gb) beat Fabrice Santoro (Fra) 7-5 4-6 7-5
Nicolas Escude (Fra) beat Tommy Robredo (Spa) 6-1 6-2
Ivan Ljubicic (Cro) beat Yevgeny Kafelnikov (Rus) 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 6-3
Sebastien Grosjean (Fra 4) beat Martin Lee (Gb) 6-0 6-2
Ivo Heuberger (Swi) beat Max Mirnyi (Bel) 7-6 (7-2) 6-2
Roger Federer (Swi 7) beat Thomas Enqvist (Swe) w/o
Arnaud Clement (Fra) beat Thomas Johansson (Swe 5) 6-2 6-3