Russia's Nikolay Davydenko backed Marat Safin to regain his position among the world's best players after negotiating a way past his enigmatic compatriot in the second round of the French Open on Thursday.
The mercurial Safin, a former Australian Open winner and a semi-finalist at Roland Garros in 2002, was a dangerous floater in the draw owing to his lowly world ranking of 73.
But fourth-seeded Davydenko dealt with him well, his 7-6 (7/4) 6-2 6-2 win setting up a match with big-serving 28th seed Ivan Ljubicic.
The Croatian defeated Diego Junqueira 6-3 6-4 6-2 following the break for rain midway through Thursday afternoon that lasted just over an hour.
'It was a great day for me as it was a difficult match,' said Davydenko.
'I think he [Safin] wants to be a top player again. And if you see what he did here, he can be. He hit so many winners, has a good return and serve.
'Maybe sometimes he's just lacking something mentally.'
Seventh seed James Blake did not fare so well and admitted he got his tactics all wrong in a surprise defeat to Latvian teenager Ernests Gulbis.
The American lost 7-6 (7/2) 3-6 7-5 6-3 and is still to progress beyond the third round in the French capital.
Blake, who looked in decent form in his first-round match against Rainer Schuttler, felt he had only himself to blame against Gulbis, 19.
'I played the way too many commentators think I should be playing,' said the 28-year-old.
'I didn't make too many errors and I didn't hit that many winners - that's the way a lot of them think I should play.
'Here is a good indication that that's not the way to win matches for me. There are a lot of guys out there that can dictate play against me if I try to play like that.
'It's really frustrating for me to play a match like that when I know my game. I was just a little too passive.'
