Tim Henman believes he has developed a mental sharpness which will make him tougher than ever to knock over this season.

The British number one claimed he is feeling strong both on court and in his head after overcoming Mark Philippoussis to win the Australian Hardcourt Championships.

Henman, beat the Australian 6-4 6-7 (8/6) 6-3 in the final in Adelaide, said: "There were a lot of aspects I was very pleased with.

"After losing the second set after a very good tie-breaker, that's when you have to draw on your mental strength and in the third set I played as good as I have played all week."

With the Australian Open beginning in eight days, Henman's preparations could not be going better.

He will bypass tournament play next week to prepare with new coach Larry Stefanki for the grand slam where he has never been beyond the fourth round.

Now 27, Henman's chances of claiming a slam have perhaps never been better. He finished last season as the world number nine and now has a coach who has guided the likes of Marcelo Rios and Yevgeny Kafelnikov to big tournament wins.

Sunday's final in Adelaide was delayed by 2 hours because of rain.

But when the sun finally came out it shone on Henman, whose title win was the ninth of his career.

Victory looked set to come in the second set when he led with a break at 5-3.

He failed to serve out for victory though and Philippoussis, whose 2001 was one of injury torment, edged a tense tie-break to level the match.

"It would have been easy to second-guess yourself and get frustrated and say 'Is this going to be my day or not?'," said Henman, who admitted the momentum was with his Aussie opponent going into the decider.

"I felt like I had done everything but win the match in the first two sets.

"But I felt strong physically and good mentally and if anything my game got better and better and I created chances.

"When you boil it all down on some of the big points I played fractionally better. If you look at my first serve percentage, I don't think it has dropped below 70all week and that is certainly a good sign for me."

Henman broke early in the third set and Philippoussis dropped serve when fighting to stay in the match at 5-3 to hand the title to his doughty opponent.

Nicknamed 'The Scud' for his usually fearsome power, Philippoussis was often found wanting when serving.

"I'm very disappointed and I hated giving away service games with double faults," he said.

"I don't mind him coming up with winners but it's just frustrating to make those unforced errors which I shouldn't be making in big matches against top players.

"He played pretty much the way I expected him to play but he was just a little steadier."

Philippoussis now plans to make up for lost time and improve on his current ranking of 80.

"I feel good despite the loss, my knee has pulled up fine," he added.

"I don't care where I am ranked and if I stay healthy and play the way I have been playing I definitely feel like a top 10 player and I feel great out on the court."

Henman was convinced he had beaten a player who was on the way back to prime shape.

"I felt like Mark was a better player early on and I couldn't get into his service games," he admitted.

"But that's the time you've got to hang in there and I got my chances and I took them."