Safin took his next service game at love with an ace, joking with a line judge who'd earlier called one of his serves wide. He later said the injury relaxed him.
"It ... took all the pressure a little bit from me in the match because I was a little bit uptight," he said. "When I twist my ankle, I just kind of stopped a little bit thinking about the way I was playing. And I played quite a good game afterwards."
Mauresmo next faces Evgenia Linetskaya, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over American Amy Frazier, seeded 21st.
"It's a long way still, three matches down, four to go and some good players still in the field," she said of the prospects for her first Grand Slam title. "I'm happy with how things are going. Hopefully, I get closer and closer to the No. 1 spot."
In other women's matches, 15th-seeded Silvia Farina Elia cruised past British qualifier Elena Baltacha, and 48-year-old Martina Navratilova advanced to the third round of the women's doubles with Daniela Hantuchova.
On the men's side, Thomas Johansson of Sweden, seeded 30th, survived his third consecutive five-set match by downing American Kevin Kim.
RSS