Henman won Olympic silver in 1996

Henman, who is seeded fourth, is in the bottom half of the draw and could meet second seed Andy Roddick in the semis.

Roddick plays Brazil's Flavio Saretta in the first round, while top seed and world number one Roger Federer takes on Nikolay Davydenko.

Justine Henin-Hardenne, the top seed in the women's singles, opens against Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic.

Injuries have forced Serena Williams and Jennifer Capriati to withdraw.

Henman will be looking to win a second Olympic medal having picked up a silver in the men's doubles at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

He goes into the tournament with a slight back strain but has a winning 2-1 record against Novak and is confident of clearing the first hurdle.

"Jiri and I have played a few times, but not recently," Henman told his website.

Academy: Master Tim's net tactics

"I beat him the first time we met at Wimbledon in 1998 in five sets and I also beat him the year after at the French Open, but he got the better of me the last time we played in the Davis Cup in Ostrava four years ago.

"Given the fact that he's done so well over the past couple of years, it's a bit strange we haven't met since then.

Have Your Say Can Henman reach the final and win gold?

"I've got a pretty good idea as to how he's going to approach the match in terms of tactics and I'm sure he knows what I'm going to do too, so it will come down to who executes the best on the day."

Men's seeds:
1-Roger Federer (Swi), 2-Andy Roddick (US) 3-Carlos Moya (Spa) 4-Tim Henman (GB), 5-Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spa), 6-David Nalbandian (Arg), 7-Rainer Schuettler (Ger), 8-Sebastien Grosjean (Fra) 9-Marat Safin (Rus), 10-Nicolas Massu (Chi), 11-Juan Ignacio Chela (Arg) 12-Paradorn Srichaphan (Tha), 13-Andrei Pavel (Rom),14-Nicolas Kiefer (Ger),15-Tommy Robredo (Spa), 16-Fernando Gonzalez (Chi)