Henman breezes through

12 April 2012

Britain's Tim Henman cruised through the first round of the Madrid Masters with a 7-5 6-3 victory over Spain's Fernando Verdasco.

The Englishman was rarely troubled during the 98-minute match and now faces another Spaniard David Ferrer, the number 14 seed.

Henman, whose only previous encounter with Verdasco ended in a first-round defeat at last year's US Open, opened up with a successful service game and showed that particular part of his armoury was up to scratch with three aces the next time he returned to the baseline.

However, his opponent was just as good as as the next five games all went with serve.

The Spaniard's first break point came at advantage in the ninth game but Henman's serve forced the left-hander to mis-hit long and the Briton recovered.

Henman survived another break to take a 6-5 lead and then almost let three set points slip before Verdasco drove long at 30-40.

Boosted by having taken the first set an early break then put the British number two 2-0 up in the second.

Faced with break point on three occasions in the next Henman salvaged the situation each time with powerful serves and extended his lead.

Another flawless service game put him 4-1 up and despite Verdasco pushing it to 5-3 Henman was in no mood to be denied.

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