Oxfordshire's Tim Henman, top surviving seed in the Australian Open after a week of Melbourne mayhem, has a mental edge over Greg Rusedski going into their eagerly-awaited third-round clash tomorrow.

That is the opinion of the one player to have been beaten by both this year - Mark Philippoussis.

The 25-year-old lost in straight sets to Rusedski yesterday and said: "Obviously they know each other's game extremely well, and I think I would give a slight advantage to Tim.

"It always seems to be that psychological edge between two guys from the same country sometimes - and I feel that maybe Tim has got his number a little bit."

The head-to-head count is 4-2 in Henman's favour, with the most recent round being in the Australian Hardcourt Championships in Adel- aide ten days ago which Henman won 6-4, 6-4.

Rusedski believes he allowed Henman to dictate tactics there, instead of playing his own game.

Meanwhile, last year's Australian finalist Arnaud Clement was the latest big name to bite the dust today when he was beaten 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 by Argentine's Gaston Gaudio.

American No 13 seed Andy Roddick was forced to retire in the first set after spraining his ankle against Ivan Ljubicic.

Pete Sampras is through with a four-set victory over Juan Ignacio Chela.