Black Tennis Pros

Lesser know Frenchman Josselin Ouanna is making excellent use of his wildcard at the 2009 French Open. Today he ended Marat Safin's French Open career with an epic five-set victory on Wednesday evening.

The very tempered but stragetgic Ouanna held on in a tight 4 hour and 34 minute match to take out Safin in a 7⁷-6², 7⁷-6⁴, 4-6, 3-6, 10-8 victory.

Safin, who has vowed to retire at the end of the season, lost the first set on a tie-break and the pattern repeated itself in the second.

The Russian appeared to have the mental edge after he saved four set points while serving at 5-6 but Ouanna stayed focused in the breaker to open a two-set lead.

However, Safin's famous temperament was held in check as he launched a fightback.

A single break of serve in both the third and fourth sets saw him level match - Ouanna missing six break points in the process.

Safin, a semi-finalist at Roland Garros in 2002, looked set to roll on to victory when he broke early in the decider, but he allowed Ouanna to hit back and level at 3-3 - Safin slamming a ball into the stands in disgust and picking up a warning in the process.

The Russian saved match points at 4-5 (with an ace) and at 5-6 (with a brilliant forehand winner) but when Ouanna fashioned more chances at 8-9 he finally cracked.

One was saved but when Safin sent a forehand wide on the next it was all over.

Ouanna progresses to a third-round meeting with Fernando Gonzalez, the 12th seed.