Murray, left, and Henman face tough third-round matches in Spain

Murray will face Serbian Novak Djokovic at around 2030 BST following his defeat of Ivan Ljubicic, while Henman takes on David Nalbandian at around 1500 BST.

And the Scot says Henman's resurgence could see him rise in the rankings.

"Tim is playing better. When Tim plays on court like he does in practice, he's for sure a top-20 player," said Murray.

Henman, currently ranked 40 in the world, has followed up a final appearance in the Japan Open with impressive wins over Spaniards Fernando Verdasco and David Ferrer in Madrid.

I'd probably say he's a slight favourite but if I play like I did against Ljubicic, it's going to be really interesting Murray on Djokovic

And Murray added: "He gives guys problems all the time. It's great that he's playing well again.

"He's not a number 40 player in the world. He's better than that and I'm sure he'll continue in this form and he'll get his ranking back."

The 19-year-old Scot is also hoping he can continue where he left off against Ljubicic when he takes on Djokovic, ranked two places ahead of him in 17th.

"He's obviously higher ranked than me and he's playing really good tennis. I think it's going to be close," he said.