Four days after announcing his retirement from the competition, Tim Henman revelled in a Davis Cup-style atmosphere in the Australian Open yesterday.

Roared on by a sizeable and vociferous British contingent in Melbourne, Henman defeated France's Cyril Saulnier in four sets to advance to the second round of the year's first grand slam.

The British number one did not have it all his own way however, despite cruising through the opening two sets in under an hour, dropping just three games in the process.

The seventh seed lost the third set 6-4 and lost his serve twice in succession in the fourth set before eventually sealing a 6-1 6-2 4-6 6-3 victory to book a last-64 clash with Romanian Victor Hanescu.

''I was wondering to what extent there were going to be people out there and as we were walking from the locker room Cyril opened the door to go on court and we were met by a sort of wall of chanting of my surname,'' said Henman.

''Cyril was in front of me so I had a bit of a wry smile to say 'I wonder if he was expecting this.'

''And then we came out on court and the atmosphere was absolutely unbelievable. I love that type of environment to play in but it's a fine line. I'm going to use it to my advantage but I'm not going to get distracted. I have a job to do.''

Henman was even congratulated on the edge of the court by one enthusiastic fan wearing an England shirt, but shrugged off any security concerns.

''I wouldn't make too much of it really,'' he added. ''I think there's plenty of times in football where people run on the pitch and I don't think you should make a big deal of it.''

Asked what had changed after dominating the first two sets, Henman, who beat Saulnier from two sets down in the first round of the French Open last year, added: ''I would like to think he (Saulnier) was the one that made the difference.

''I played two sets of pretty much flawless tennis and I wanted to try and maintain that level. I think I did but if anything I wanted to be more aggressive.

''I thought there was some really good tennis. A lot of points were finishing on a winner and if I was him I would be really disappointed to lose the second set 6-2 because he was playing well.''

Henman has never played second round opponent Hanescu before, but will be encouraged by the tall Romanian's loss to fellow Brit Ian Flanagan at Queen's last year, when Flanagan was ranked 866th in the world and Hanescu 78th.

''I've seen him play a little bit here and there but I think my coach Paul Annacone watched his first two sets today,'' added the 30-year-old.

''It's always tricky if you are not clear on how someone plays but it all goes back to the point that I need to concentrate on the way I want to play.''