PARIS -- Andre Agassi sat in his chair a few extra seconds at each changeover, resting his body and composing his mind.

	Mario Ancic saved four match points.

He also was stalling, letting the kid who was giving him a hard time wait around on court before play could resume.

Agassi needed every drop of energy and resolve to reach the French Open's third round Wednesday. He rallied from a monumental deficit and overcame some surprisingly ragged crunch-time nerves to oust Croatian teen Mario Ancic in five sets.

"Sometimes, you just have to find a way. You have to dig deep and come up with the goods," said Agassi, who double-faulted three times when serving for the match. "As long as you're still in, it's a new tournament. I have a new life right now."

The eight-time Grand Slam champion lost the first two sets and trailed in the third before cobbling together a 5-7, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 comeback for his 763rd victory -- sixth most in history and one more than Pete Sampras.

Ancic was wearing a layer of burnt-orange clay by the end of his match after tumbling to the court in the fourth set while diving for a shot.

He's only 19, but Ancic already has shown promise. He upset Roger Federer at Wimbledon last year and reached the fourth round at the Australian Open in January. With his booming serve, Ancic plays a bit like his mentor, 2001 Wimbledon champion Goran Invanisevic, and he talks like him, too.

"When you are playing with such a big player, every chance, every small chance you have," Ancic said, holding his thumb and index finger together, "is like a whole planet. It's such a big thing."

Agassi is about the biggest big-match player on tour these days, and he managed to bounce back after twice being down a break in the third set. At 33 -- the French Open's oldest entrant -- he knows all about how to get by on a tough day. This was his fifth career victory after a 2-0 deficit in sets, his third at Roland Garros: He did it in the 1999 final and in last year's fourth round.

Agassi wasn't quite home free, though, even after taking a lead late. Serving at 5-3, he wasted one match point with a double fault and another with an errant backhand. That was followed by two more double faults, handing away the game.

"I rushed a little bit," he acknowledged.

With the outcome again in doubt, fans held up play with loud, rhythmic cheers of "Ahhhn-dray," clap-clap-clap, "Ahhhn-dray," clap-clap-clap, followed by the wave. They didn't stop until the chair umpire's third request for quiet.