Henman progresses to last eight

Tim Henman continued his excellent early season form by reaching the quarter-finals of the latest ATP Masters Series event in Monte Carlo.

The British number one produced a spirited performance to see off powerful Chilean Nicolas Massu, 3-6 6-4 6-3 in a thrilling third-round tie.

Henman will now meet the winner of the Lleyton Hewitt-Rainer Schuettler match for a place in the semi-finals.

In contrast to his opening matches in this event, Henman looked far more assured in a match which saw both men produce their best tennis playing against the serve.

Big-hitting Massu had not dropped a set going into this contest, and was particularly impressive as he blew away Feliciano Lopez of Spain, a strong player on clay, 6-2 6-4 in the previous round.

He finished a tight and nervy opening set strongly after making a breakthrough in the first game of the day when he broke Henman's serve.

That started a run of four games to go against the server before Henman finally held to edge 3-2 ahead.

However, Massu held and broke again to move 4-3 in front, and found yet more answers to Henman's serve to clinch a set which saw a total of six breaks 6-3.

Remarkably neither player could find consistency with their serve in the second set.

Massu broke to level at 1-1 after Henman had struck early before the Brit again responded to take a 2-1 advantage.

Henman missed the chance of going 4-1 ahead after blowing three break points in Massu's next service game, but the remainder of the set went with serve as Henman squared things up.

An edgy looking Massu also lost his opening service game in the decider before slipping 2-0 down, but pushed hard against an increasingly confident Henman.

The Brit was never seriously troubled on serve from therein, and eventually saw the match out 6-3.