Henman hurries to last eight

Tim Henman powered past Mariano Zabaleta, of Argentina, at the Salem Open in Hong Kong yesterday to set up a quarter-final with the American Michael Chang.

Tim Henman powered past Mariano Zabaleta, of Argentina, at the Salem Open in Hong Kong yesterday to set up a quarter-final with the American Michael Chang.

The British second seed reached the last eight with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over the South American to book his meeting with Chang, who was a 6-1, 6-2 winner against Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands yesterday.

Henman, who has lost in seven finals since winning his last title in October 1998, immediately set his sights on ending his drought. He said: "I'd be the first to admit that I'd love to win here and I feel in these type of conditions I do have a good chance."

Zabaleta led 3-1 in meetings between the two before today's match and Henman added: "I went into the match fully aware of my losing record to him.

"I think early on I stamped my authority on the match. I think I only lost four points in the first three games.

"After that the match was pretty close and when it came down to the big points, I won the vast majority of them and that's very important at this level."