Henman to face world number one

British number one Tim Henman started 2005 with a flying start with a straight sets victory over Argentine David Nalbandian at the Kooyong Classic exh

10:31 12 January 2005

British number one Tim Henman started 2005 with a flying start with a straight sets victory over Argentine David Nalbandian at the Kooyong Classic exhibition tournament.

Despite admitting previously that he was "a bit rusty", he beat the former Wimbledon runner-up 6-1 7-5 in the warm-up for the Australian Open in Melbourne.

He faltered only once when serving for the match at 5-4, but came back to secure his place opposite world number one Roger Federer on Friday.

"It's a great start to the year - just what I was looking for," Henman told his official website.

"Over the years I've found David [Nalbandian] very difficult to play against. He returns serve very well and he's deceptively effective from the baseline, so sometimes it can be difficult to execute my game plan well enough against him to get the right result.

"Beating somebody of his stature is always good for the confidence and it bodes well at the beginning of the year."

Defending Australian Open champion Federer eventually beat French Open champion Gaston Gaudio 5-7 6-1 6-4, despite starting the match slowly - something he put down to the change in surface.

"The conditions are much quicker than [at the Qatar Open last week], my timing was OK, but I could have served better," the Swiss champion said.

"All-in-all I'm happy with the match, and I won it - that's a good sign - now I have a day off and hopefully play better the next match."

Meanwhile, Andre Agassi saw off Olympic gold medallist Nicolas Massu of Chile 6-1 7-6 (7-4) and will now face Andy Roddick, who breezed through his match against Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic 6-1 6-4.