"I wanted to prove something out there today, for sure. There was definitely a chip on my shoulder," Roddick said. "It was big to get through. It would have been a devastating loss."

Australian Open champion and fifth-seeded Marat Safin did taste defeat yesterday, but he didn't sound all that disappointed at being on the wrong end of a 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-3 score against No. 26 Feliciano Lopez of Spain in a third-round match.

"I'm satisfied. I found my game on grass. I have nothing to complain about," said Safin, who changed his tune after vowing to quit trying to succeed on the surface after last year's first-round exit at the All England Club.

Lopez, into Wimbledon's round of 16 for the third time in four years, next faces 2004 semifinalist Mario Ancic. Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 champion, will play No. 24 Taylor Dent of the United States in the fourth round. Hewitt beat Justin Gimelstob, 7-6 (5), 6-4, 7-5, while Dent was a 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 winner over Tomas Berdych, the Czech who upset Roger Federer at the Athens Olympics.

Federer, the two-time defending Wimbledon champion, and No. 1 Lindsay Davenport were among the players whose matches didn't start yesterday because of rain. Before the tournament's first patch of bad weather, No. 3 Amelie Mauresmo beat Shenay Perry of the United States, 6-0, 6-2, and four Russians made the round of 16: U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, French Open champion Anastasia Myskina, two-time major finalist Elena Dementieva and No. 13 Elena Likhovtseva.

Roddick's match was suspended by darkness Thursday night, right after the third set, which angered Bracciali. And it was halted for 33 minutes yesterday by rain, right after the 120th-ranked Italian conjured up four brilliant returns on serves up to 135 mph to break at love for a 4-3 edge in the fourth set.

It was about then that Roddick began having flashbacks to the French Open. There, too, he won the first two sets against a low-ranked opponent in the second round before letting the lead vanish. Roddick wound up losing to Jose Acasuso in five sets in Paris.

"I thought about it," the American said. "I thought about how to avoid it."

So he opted to attack more. Roddick won 13 of 15 serve-and-volley points and 28 points at the net overall.

"I wasn't surprised," Bracciali said, "because I knew he had to change something."

It was Roddick's first victory in a five-setter since the 2003 U.S. Open semifinals, when he overcame a match point against David Nalbandian en route to his first Grand Slam title.