Hewitt shines at Roland Garros

French Open dark horse Lleyton Hewitt demonstrated his renowned fighting qualities to recover from going two sets down to defeat former champion Gaston Gaudio in Thursday's stand-out match at Roland Garros.

The Australian, seeded 14th, is known for his grit and determination and he needed it as he claimed a 4-6 3-6 6-2 6-4 6-2 win in almost three-and-a-half hours on Philippe Chatrier court.

"He was probably one of the toughest second-round matches you can get here," said the former world number one, who lost to Gaudio during the Argentinian's run to the title three years ago.

"He was hitting his backhand great, and he wasn't missing many balls. It was a matter of just hanging in there, and just focusing on winning one set at a time.

"It does make it hard playing a guy like that. He is going to have his ups and downs, and you just don't know what you are going to get from him."

Marcos Baghdatis had it far more straightforward in his second-round match as he defeated Denmark's Kristian Pless 7-5 6-3 6-4 on Court 1 to reach the third round at Roland Garros for the first time in three attempts.

The Paris-based Cypriot said: "Slowly, slowly, I'm finding my game on clay, starting to feel the way I have to play. I don't see why here I can't play like I do on the hard and grass courts."

Meanwhile, Serbia's Novak Djokovic, the sixth seed, secured a four-set victory over Frenchman Laurent Recouderc.

The 20-year-old Djokovic, a quarter-finalist at Roland Garros last year, won 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-1 on Suzanne Lenglen court.

Ivo Ljubicic, seeded seven, joined him in the third round thanks to a 6-4 6-3 6-7 (3/7) 6-3 triumph over Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka.