Marat Safin claimed he was deserted by Lady Luck as he crashed out following a five-set, fourth-round thriller with 15th seed Tommy Robredo.

Despite twice fighting back from a set down and then from a serve down in the fifth set, the third-seeded Russian was unable to push on against his Spanish opponent, who showed great resolve to win 7-5, 1-6, 6-1, 4-6, 8-6.

"It's pure luck that made the difference in the end," said Safin. "It could have gone my way but I struggled a lot, nothing went the way I wanted to to gain more confidence. He played very well, of course, but I was missing a little something."

Safin, who has not impressed since winning the Australian Open in January, admits he still hopes to win at Roland Garros in the future. "I have no pressure here but this is one of my favourite tournaments," he added.

Robredo reached the quarter-final in Paris in 2003 but has otherwise never gone beyond the fourth round of a Grand Slam. He said: "This is one of my best victories considering the importance of the match. It was tough to play because of the wind and the match was very close."

Robredo will next face Russian 12th seed Nikolay Davydenko, who ousted last year's runner-up Guillermo Coria of Argentina.

"I can play a lot better than that," warned Robredo. "But for now I am not going to think about Davydenko, I will sleep well and start getting focused on my next match tomorrow."

Fourth seed Rafael Nadal, the Spanish prodigy who is playing at the French Open for the first time, booked his place in the quarter-finals after an action-packed victory against home favourite and 23rd seed Sebastien Grosjean.

Their match started off on Sunday before being interrupted by rain when Nadal was leading 6-4, 3-6, 3-0. The teenager easily finished off the job as he won the third set 6-0 before wrapping up the match 6-3 in the fourth.

However, Nadal hit out at the behaviour of the French fans, who he believes caused him to lose the second set on Sunday evening.

The start of the second set was interrupted for ten minutes when Argentinian umpire Damien Steiner refused to check a debatable call that led to Nadal breaking the French player's serve and the crowd started booing.

Grand Slam supervisor Norbert Peick intervened and spoke with Steiner, who stood by his decision, before the game finally resumed.

But Nadal, who claims he has never experienced such an incident before, admitted the stoppage had affected him.

"The crowd did not behave well at all, but this is France and what they did was a silly thing," said Nadal.

"I have never seen that happen in Spain.

"The umpire was absolutely right but then the crowd got rowdy and started whistling. I think we should have gone back to the changing room until the crowd quietened down but instead we waited for ten minutes. It really did make me lose my concentration."

But Nadal rediscovered his composure yesterday and progressed to the next round where he will face compatriot David Ferrer, who ousted defending champion and fifth seed Gaston Gaudio.

The Argentinian admitted he was appalled by the nature of his five-set loss. "I was leading 4-0 in the fifth set and was almost there," he said following the 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 5-7, 6-4 defeat.

Ninth seed Guillermo Canas of Argentina had an easy passage through the fourth round as his opponent, Germany's Nicolas Kieffer, pulled out before the start of the match with a pinched nerve in his neck.

Canas now faces unseeded Argentinian Mariano Puerta, who thrashed his compatriot Jose Acasuso 6-4, 6-1, 6-1.