It will be Tim Henman against Greg Rusedski in the third round of the Australian Open in Melbourne on Friday - their first-ever Grand Slam clash.

After Oxfordshire's Henman easily saw off Belarussian Vladimir Voltchkov today, Rusedski pulled off a superb victory over fellow big-hitter Mark Philippoussis, also in straight sets.

From 5-2 down in the first set, Rusedski came roaring back against Australia's last hope.

Rusedski lost to Henman in Adelaide two weeks ago, but rebuilt confidence with a tournament victory in Auckland last Saturday and it showed as he won 7-6 (9-7), 6-3, 6-4.

"Mark is a great player, but I feel great," he said.

Sixth seed Henman, though, will start favourite after taking his unbeaten run in 2002 to seven matches with a fairly comfortable 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 work-out against Voltchkov, a former Wimbledon semi-finalist who has now gone 11 months without stringing two wins together.

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.

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 well.

"On Friday, as is the case 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, although not 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."

Henman is now the highest seed left in the tournament, after two more shock results.

Fifth seed Sebastien Grosjean lost to fellow Frenchman, 33-year-old Francisco Clavet 6-4, 3-6, 6-0, 5-7, 6-4, and American qualifier Alex Kim won 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 against fourth seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov, whom Henman was seeded to meet in the semi-finals.