Safin in stormy defeat to Robredo

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Third seed Marat Safin crashed out of the French Open in the fourth round at the hands of Spaniard Tommy Robredo.

The 15th seed won 7-5 1-6 6-1 4-6 8-6 as Safin produced another trademark emotional and erratic display, smashing a racket, a chair and some hoarding.

The turning point came at break point down in the last set when Safin double -faulted, before Robredo served out.

"Luck made the difference," said Safin. "I've had a lot of luck. If I didn't I'd be washing bottles in Russia."

"There were some points which could have gone either way (but) they went his way.

"I have nothing to be angry about. I was just missing a little bit. I wasn't 100% when I needed to be."

I was very concentrated and I think I was calmer than he was Tommy Robredo

Robredo willl now play another Russian, 12th seed Nikolay Davydenko, for a place in the semi-finals.

Robredo edged the first set but Safin looked to be in control when he raced through the second, dropping just one game.

However, the Australian Open champion began to self-destruct in the early stages of the third set, receiving a code violation warning from the umpire after he smashed his racket on his chair after a string of unforced errors.

Robredo broke at the beginning of the fourth set, sparking a run of games in which neither player could hold serve.

And the Spaniard faltered when serving at 4-5 to allow Safin to force a deciding set.

Robredo again struggled whenever he went ahead in the final set and even when serving for the match at 7-6, he wobbled to go 0-30 down but held his nerve and clinched victory when Safin splayed a forehand wide.

"I was very concentrated and I think I was calmer than he was," said Robredo, who was also a quarter-finalist here in 2003.

"It was very tight. I got lucky and I think he was a little nervous. He's a player who likes to win every point and sometimes he makes a lot of mistakes as a result. That was the key today."