Henman dismisses Zabaleta in style

Tim Henman made short work of reaching the last eight of the RCA Championships here when he thrashed Mariano Zabaleta, of Argentina, 6-2, 6-1 on Thursday.

Henman, the sixth seed, will now face the top seed, Gustavo Kuerten, who earlier defeated Ivan Ljubicic, of Croatia, 7-6, 6-4. Henman has a 2-1 lead over the world No 1 in their career meetings. Kuerten, who recorded 17 aces against Ljubicic, beat the British No 1 in the quarter-finals in Cincinnati last week.

"I'm looking forward to it," said Henman. "There's no question that he's the best player in the world right now. We've had tough matches in the past. It's good to put yourself up against the best."

Henman came into the match against the 110th-ranked Zabaleta trailing the Argentinian 3-2 in their previous matches. "I must admit I though it would be tougher," the Briton said. "He's someone I had trouble with in the past.

"It's a combination that I'm playing really well and he's struggling with his game and not as consistent as he's been in the past.

Kuerten, the French Open champion, jokingly dispelled rumours he was about to become a television star with a guest appearance in the Brazilian prime-time soap opera The Clone. "I have no future in television," Kuerten said. "I'm not smooth enough a guy to be on television.

"Can you imagine if I have to do make-up – it would take three hours," he said pointing to his face.

Kuerten, who has won 25 of his 26 matches since the beginning of the French Open, said he was trying to conserve his energy in what has been a long, yet successful, northern summer. "I'm not running that much on court and not having great rallies," he said.

"I'm hitting the ball a little bit harder and I might be making a few more mistakes but I'm also making more winners," he said.

The reigning US Open champion, Marat Safin, who has been struggling with injury and a dip in form, played an "almost perfect" second set in beating the 16th seed, Tommy Robredo, of Spain, 7-6, 6-1.

Safin, the No 2 seed, who will play the eighth-seeded Thomas Enqvist in the quarter-finals, lost only three points in four service games in the second set.

"The second set was almost perfect," said Safin, who has been off form since suffering a back injury in the Dubai final in February.

"I played much better than two days ago and maybe I'm on my way to playing well again." Robredo led 5-2 in the first set, but Safin rallied impressively.

The Wimbledon champion, Goran Ivanisevic, hit 19 aces in a 7-5, 7-5 defeat of the seventh-seeded Arnaud Clement to set up a quarter-final with Younes El Aynaoui, of Morocco.

The Belarussian Max Mirnyi saved seven match points to edge past Jonas Bjorkman, of Sweden, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6. In the quarter-finals he will meet Pat Rafter, of Australia. The fifth-seeded Rafter, who has reached the final of his last three tournaments – Wimbledon, Montreal and Cincinnati – won 6-4, 6-4 over Kristian Pless, of Denmark.

* The former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek and last year's French Open finalist Magnus Norman have withdrawn from the US Open, the organisers said yesterday. Krajicek has been out of action for several months with an elbow injury and Norman has a persistent hip injury.