Tennis: Black skies hung over London yesterday as the rain came down. Thunder clouds also gathered around the head of Andy Roddick for four fractured sets, a chink of light finally appearing in the fifth and allowing him to finally close out his third-round match with no little relief.

For a while as the contest swayed both ways in the fourth and fifth sets, it looked as though the second seed American might have joined Marat Safin at the tournament exit door.

"It would have been a devastating loss," said Roddick afterwards.

Not just Roddick's confidence was at stake but a whole country's hopes would have been dashed. Although Taylor Dent meets Lleyton Hewitt for a place in the quarter-finals, it is Roddick the USA looks to for Grand Slam success.

A winner of the 2003 US Open, Roddick has figured in Grand Slam finals but has not won any now in almost two years and his five-set record is not great. His career record before the match was four wins from seven played.

From his standpoint the Grand Slam issue is a drought and, from that of the more exacting media, it is close to failure.

That he struggled for long periods against Italy's Daniele Bracciali, ranked 120 in the world to his four, will have chastened the 22-year-old sufficiently to make him realise this was a narrow escape.

Bracciali played the match in the knowledge he would lose if he played the normal game that has him so lowly placed.

Throwing all he had at the American over three phases, he took Roddick to places he did not want to go. One break of serve in the fifth could have swung the match. As it was, Roddick took it, breaking Bracciali in the sixth game of that final chapter and holding his serve for 6-3.

The match had carried over from Thursday owing to bad light and then just as Bracciali broke Roddick's serve in the fourth set the rain began to fall and covers were pulled. The Italian then came back, held his nerve and bravely took the set to tee up the fraught finale.

"I wanted to prove something there for sure," said Roddick. "There was definitely a chip on my shoulder. But the more matches I win that are tough, the more you remember what it's like to do that. You know, I think it was big to get through."

For a while the French Open went through Roddick's head. In Paris he found himself in similar circumstances, two and a half sets into a second-round match that he failed to turn around.

"Yeah, I thought about it. I thought about how to avoid that," said Roddick. "I know all you guys were there with your stat books counting the last couple of losses in five sets - that nonsense. It was definitely big for me to get that one on the board."

So tight was the contest that a tiebreak in the third set and a service break in each of the other four settled the issue over almost three hours, Bracciali equalling Roddick's huge service almost ball for ball.

Where Roddick triumphed, Safin tumbled. The Russian may have drawn a warning from Argentinean umpire Damian Steiner in the first set but he ultimately departed Wimbledon placidly. There were no dark ruminations, no frustrated mutterings. But there was a little racquet throwing and a few Russian profanities following his straight-sets defeat by Spain's Feliciano Lopez.

Lopez, seeded 26 to Safin's five, has now beaten the Australian Open champion three times in their four meetings.

Ironically, the loss arrived just as Safin was beginning to warm to grass, which he has always found difficult. Lower and uncertain bounces make it difficult with his large frame. But the 25-year-old was serenely pragmatic, a departure for him.

"I didn't play good enough to win this match," he said. "I couldn't adjust my game to him. I was struggling with the return of serve. Just couldn't find my game there."

Lopez, a left-hander, has now equalled his best Grand Slam effort, appearing in the last 16, which he did at last year's French Open before losing to three-times champion Gustavo Kuerten.