Marat Safin crashed out of his last ever French Open with typical flashes of brilliance on Wednesday in a 7-6 7-6 4-6 3-6 10-8 defeat by Josselin Ouanna that the former world number one Safin was keen to forget.

The Russian, who will retire at the end of the year, clawed himself back from two sets down to somehow force a decider, where he magically saved two match points before bashing a wild forehand wide to send the 134th-ranked Frenchman into the third round.

The 20th seed Safin dug himself out of a hole with the type of exquisitely placed forehands that took him to two grand slam titles earlier in his career but then buried himself in deeper trouble with the poor shots that set off his displays of frustration.

"Terrible first serve. And of course, backhand didn't do anything, basically nothing today, especially playing down the line, and I couldn't find any angles to catch his backhand. Terrible approaches, and of course not covering the net the way I should." Safin said at a news conference.

Directing his abuse towards his racket, the former world number one punched his racket when he fluffed easy shots and cheered himself when he unleashed the occasional wonder shot.

Safin showed fewer emotions when asked about leaving Roland Garros for the last time.

"Well, as you can see, I didn't draw the heart, and I didn't lay down and I didn't cry and I didn't do all those things ... it's not me," Safin said referring to Gustavo Kuerten tracing a huge heart in the clay and flopping down in the middle of it after winning his third French Open in 2001.

"Well, hopefully I can forget this match, for sure. My best memory was too far away in history. Nothing really great to write about for the last five years" Marat added.