PARIS, May 28: Marat Safin spent 24 minutes finishing off Felix Mantilla at the French Open on Friday, finally beating the Spaniard 11-9 in the fifth set of a match which spanned two days.

Sporting an unusual look reminiscent of Alexander Dumas' The Three Musketeers, the moustachioed Russian eventually triumphed 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, 6-7, 11-9 to reach the third round of the clay court Grand Slam.

Safin's colourful antics throughout the theatrical match - it resumed at 7-7 on Friday - contrasted with Guillermo Coria's straightforward victory over Croatian Mario Ancic, the third-seeded Argentine winning 6-3, 6-1, 6-2.

Meanwhile, Jie Zheng became the first Chinese woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam singles event when she beat Italy's Tathiana Garbin 5-7, 7-6, 6-2. The 21-year-old, ranked 58 in the world, took the second set tiebreak 7-1 and never looked back against Garbin, who had upset defending champion Justine Henin-Hardenne in the second round.

Garbin started to struggle physically towards the end of the match and Jie took full advantage to achieve a historic two-hour 30-minute victory for the world's most populous nation.

A strong favourite for the title, Coria will next face Nicolas Escude for a place in the quarters. The Frenchman beat Mikhail Youzhny 6-2, 7-5, 6-7, 6-2. In the women's draw Lindsay Davenport advanced comfortably, beating Marissa Irvin 6-1, 6-4 before allowing herself to look deeper into the draw.

Davenport is on track for a quarterfinal against France's Amelie Mauresmo. Home favourite Mauresmo dispatched Spain's Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-3, 6-2. The third seed gave a confident display in front of a packed centre court crowd, wrapping up victory in 67 minutes.

Briton Tim Henman played a dream of a match to hammer Spain's Galo Blanco 7-6, 6-1, 6-2 and move into the last 16 for the first time on his ninth visit here. Henman will play unseeded Frenchman Michael Llodra for a place in the quarterfinals.

The Briton has never gone beyond round four at any grand-slam event outside of Wimbledon. Fifth seed Carlos Moya of Spain cantered through against Dutchman Raemon Sluiter 6-0, 6-3, 6-4.

Russia's Maria Sharapova stormed through to the fourth round with an impressive 6-3, 7-6 victory over 10th seed Vera Zvonareva. The 17-year-old Siberian, seeded 18th, blasted past her fellow Russian, who beat Venus Williams en route to the quarterfinals at Roland Garros last year.

Florida-based Sharapova faces unseeded German Marlene Weingaertner for a place in the quarterfinals. Weingaertner provided the early shock of the day when she ousted eighth-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova 6-3, 6-2.

Petrova, a semifinalist last year, made 29 unforced errors. Weingaertner, who did not win a single game in her last meeting with Petrova, reached the fourth round here for the first time.

On Thursday, Serena Williams narrowly avoided a similar fate, the second seed made to scramble all the way before beating 100th-ranked Maria Kirilenko of Russia 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Friday's results (prefix number denotes seeding):