Henman had earlier comfortably disposed of Vladimir Voltchkov - also in straight sets.

From 5-2 down in the first set, Rusedski came roaring back to win 7-6 (9-7) 6-3 6-4.

"Mark is a great player, but I feel great," he said. "I got to Australia on December 19 and I've worked very hard.

"I probably have two or three years left in me (at this level) and I want to maximise them."

Sixth seed Henman will start favourite after taking his unbeaten run in 2002 to seven matches against Voltchkov.

The head-to-head record between the two Britons stands 4-2 in Henman's favour - and Rusedski's last success was four years ago.

One of them is now certain to equal their best-ever performance in the championship by reaching the last 16 and with the top three seeds already gone in Lleyton Hewitt, Gustavo Kuerten and Andre Agassi, they are each hoping to go much further than that, of course.

Neither has dropped a set yet and Henman said: "I perhaps didn't serve quite as consistently as I have done previously, but when I needed to, I really served very, very well.

"On Friday, as is the case a lot of the time in the men's game, it's going to boil down to who plays best on the day, who takes their chances. I hope it's me.

"I look forward to it. I'd like to think my win two weeks ago means something, but it doesn't really mean a great deal.

"We're both confident and we'll both fancy our chances. Greg's got to be very pleased because that was always going to be a tough match for me.

"There's always going to be an added edge when two people from the same country play."