Henman - I can win title

More pictures from Roland Garros Henman crushes Blanco

Tim Henman said he is confident he can win the French Open following his straight-sets win over Galo Blanco.

Henman played some sublime tennis and shrugged off recent illness to reach the fourth round for the first time, where he will face Michael Llodra.

Asked outright whether he could be champion, Henman said "absolutely".

He added: "I'd been in the third round four times before and I've now got through to the fourth round. But why stop there?

"I feel good about my game so I will keep seeing what damage I can do."

Henman has only played Llodra once, beating him in the second round at Wimbledon in 2003.

Every time I look at myself in the mirror, I'm saying, 'Oh God, you made it to the fourth round this time' Michael Llodra

He said he was feeling better after the recent mystery illness which he struggled with in the first round.

"The way I recovered after some points in the early round matches, I felt really lethargic.

"Now I'm feeling stronger though I still feel a little bit weak after long games. But it's a marked improvement."

Henman said he was learning how to keep his focus better to avoid losing concentration during matches.

Against Blanco he was 5-0 up in the second set, but lost his serve from 40-0, ending the game with a double fault and he also surrendered his first service game of the third set.

"At 40-0 up, for the next 10 minutes I lost my rhythm and clarity of what I was trying to do. The aim for me is that it should not take 10 minutes - next time it will be five minutes. Then it will be only a game.

"It's how quickly I can switch back into it. That's my aspiration. I have improved a lot over the last six months but there's still work to do."

Llodra is also in uncharted territory having never won a match at Roland Garros before.

But he said he was looking forward to facing Henman, after freezing in his straight-sets defeat on Centre Court last year.

"He was much, much better than I was. I was very tense because we were playing on Centre Court, with all the legend of Centre Court in Wimbledon ... I was not in very good shape.

"Now, I have nothing to lose.

"Every time I look at myself in the mirror, I'm saying, 'Oh God, you made it to the fourth round this time'. I can't even believe it," he laughed.

"I had never won a match at Roland Garros, and now I've won three in a row. This is quite an achievement as far as I'm concerned.

"I know it's going to be a fantastic match. Playing Tim Henman is fantastic for me. I'm looking forward to it."