The Associated Press

PARIS - Marat Safin did it again. No, he didn't drop his shorts, the unconventional method of celebration he chose after winning a point earlier in the week.

But for the second match in a row at the French Open, Safin was pushed to match point, rallied and won a five-setter. And once again, he created a fuss.

In a marathon that finished at dusk Saturday, Safin beat qualifier Potito Starace 6-7 (4), 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, 7-5.

The demonstrative Russian kept his pants on throughout the 4-hour, 25-minute match. But he drew boos when he took an injury timeout to have blisters on his left hand treated and taped while Starace was serving for the match in the fourth set.

Afterward, Starace accused Safin of gamesmanship.

"Surely, he did it to make me more nervous," Starace said.

Safin acknowledged that the timeout appeared suspicious but said he needed immediate treatment. To support his case at a postmatch news conference, he held up both hands, which showed eight splotches of orange medication on the blisters.

Most were on his left hand, which affected the right-handed Safin's two-fisted backhand.

"I'm not the kind of person I would take the doctor on a point like that," Safin said. "I couldn't hold the racket from the backhand."

Said Starace: "He had blisters on his hand, but he maybe could have stopped earlier. He just decided to do it at a difficult moment."

Many fans agreed. When Safin closed out the victory, he walked off center court to a mix of cheers and jeers. He raised a fist, then applauded as he headed for the exit.

"It's really sad for me the people couldn't understand," Safin said. "They have their opinion, and I hope their opinion is a little bit wrong. At the end of the day, I hope they enjoyed the match."

Safin first received treatment for his hand early in the fourth set. Both players held until the ninth game, when Safin was broken to fall behind 5-4. He faced two match points in the next game but erased both with winners.

Then, with Starace still serving at deuce, Safin approach chair umpire Javier Moreno's chair and requested an injury timeout. As they conversed, fans booed so loudly that Safin climbed the first rung of the chair so he could hear Moreno.

Safin showed the blisters to Potito, who appeared to say nothing.

"Probably he didn't believe it," Safin said.

Play resumed after the brief delay, and six points later Safin broke for 5-all. Then he broke again to force a fifth set.

As nightfall approached, Safin became increasingly dominant on serve. During one stretch Starace failed to put 10 consecutive serves into play.

At 9:30 p.m., with the match on the verge of being suspended because of darkness, Starace served at 5-6. The Italian ranked 202nd kept coming through in the clutch, erasing five match points, including four with winners - one on a forehand that ticked the net cord.

Then came the 382nd and final point of the match. Potito hit a backhand into the net, and Safin was the winner.

The former U.S. Open champion has totaled nine hours of tennis in the past two rounds while playing three days in a row. He'll have Sunday off before facing No. 8-seeded David Nalbandian in the fourth round, and he plans to wear tape to protect the blisters.

How will the fans greet Safin?

"No matter how they'll receive me next match," he said, "I will still be there."

This is my maison! Guga upsets Federer

With the familiar red clay underfoot, and chants of "Gu-ga!" ringing in his ears, Gustavo Kuerten felt right at home.

Something about the French Open inspires the three-time champion: His preparation doesn't matter, nor does his health, nor does the opponent, apparently.

Showing no signs of a bum hip or recent time off, Kuerten upset No. 1-ranked Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 Saturday to reach the round of 16 at Roland Garros for the sixth straight year.

"I came here in bad shape, playing bad," said the man known as Guga, who entered the French Open ranked 30th and just 2-4 since February. "But every time I go on the court, it seems something special happens with the love and passion I have for the tournament that brings the best out in me."

It tends to bring out the worst in the top-seeded Federer, who lost to journeymen in the first round in 2002 and 2003. After the latter disappointment, he went 19-1 at Grand Slam tournaments, winning Wimbledon and the Australian Open.

Boasting a tour-high four titles and a 34-3 record this season, the Swiss star never worked his way into the match against Kuerten, though, failing to secure a break point after the second game.

"I don't really care what I did. Now it's over. The tournament is over," Federer said when asked whether he erred in strategy. "What can I do now?"

Book a flight, for one thing. His early exit follows those by defending champions Juan Carlos Ferrero and No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne and marks the first time in French Open history that both top-seeded players lost before the fourth round.

The "ooh-waah" Kuerten seemed to sing as he exhaled while swinging through each groundstroke sounded similar to the fans' chants of his nickname echoing through the main stadium, where green-gold-and-blue Brazilian flags dotted the stands.

The spectators were in an angrier mood six hours later, when full-throated boos were directed at Marat Safin as he walked off the same court at dusk, toting a 6-7 (4), 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 victory over Italian qualifier Potito Starace, who's ranked 202nd.

The match provided the most theater on a day when Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati moved into the women's fourth round.

Safin - penalized a point for pulling down his shorts during a two-day, five-set, second-round victory over Felix Mantilla - drew the crowd's ire by repeatedly stopping play to have blisters on his left hand treated by a trainer.

The most notable interruption came while Starace was serving for the match at 5-4 in the fourth set and right after a spectacular forehand passing shot erased Starace's second match point (Safin saved one against Mantilla). The jeers and whistles were so loud during that delay, Safin climbed up the chair umpire's stand to hear him.

The Russian showed his hands to Starace, who later said Safin probably was hurting but "surely, he did it to make me more nervous."

Safin had eight blisters on his hands; he's right-handed but uses a two-fisted backhand.

"It's really sad for me the people couldn't understand," said the 2000 U.S. Open champion, who had 20 aces and finally won on his sixth match point, when a weary Starace dumped a forehand into the net.

Had the match not ended in that game, it would have been suspended until Sunday. Instead, Safin can heal for a day before facing No. 8 David Nalbandian. Starace, meanwhile, will return to the obscurity of minor league tournaments knowing, he said, "I can compete with the best."

Martin Verkerk learned that lesson last year, when he reached the final in his very first appearance. His run ended a week earlier this time, in a 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 loss to two-time major champion Lleyton Hewitt.

Like Federer, Hewitt has found greater success on hard and grass courts than on the surface some refer to as "dirt." For Kuerten, in contrast, it's a blank canvas that demands artistry, in the form of down-the-line backhands that bedeviled Federer or the heart the lanky Brazilian drew in the clay as a valentine to the fans in 2001.

Kuerten's never been past the quarterfinals at the other three Slams.

"It's been a love story since the beginning," said Kuerten, who was ranked 66th and didn't own a title from any tournament when he won the 1997 French Open - "coming from nowhere," as he put it Saturday.

He triumphed in Paris again in 2000, when he finished the year ranked No. 1, and in 2001, but right hip surgery the next February derailed his career.

Troubled by the hip this spring, he considered skipping his favorite event altogether, then twice was two points from defeat against a qualifier in the first round. But Kuerten, who meets No. 23 Feliciano Lopez for a quarterfinal berth, was as brilliant as the 78-degree weather against Federer.

"He didn't give me too much of a chance. He wasn't missing much," Federer said. "He was stronger than I thought today."

Highlights

Men's seeded winners: No. 8 David Nalbandian, No. 12 Lleyton Hewitt, No. 20 Marat Safin, No. 23 Feliciano Lopez, No. 28 Gustavo Kuerten.

Men's seeded losers: No. 1 Roger Federer, No. 19 Martin Verkerk.

Women's seeded winners: No. 2 Serena Williams, No. 4 Venus Williams, No. 6 Anastasia Myskina, No. 7 Jennifer Capriati, No. 11 Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 17 Francesca Schiavone.

Women's seeded losers: No. 25

Elena Bovina.