French Open dark horse Lleyton Hewitt demonstrated his renowned fighting qualities to recover from going two sets down to defeat former champion Gaston Gaudio 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.

Gaudio, the 2004 champion, looked in control when two sets up but he is consistent for his inconsistency, and allowed Hewitt to launch an all-too-familiar fightback.

After seeing himself pegged back to two sets all, Gaudio trudged back to his seat after being broken in the opening game of the decider.

Hewitt had no further problems and set up a third-round clash with Jarkko Nieminen, but he admitted Gaudio caused him all sorts of problems early on.

''He was probably one of the toughest second-round matches you can get here,'' said the former world No 1, 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.''

Hewitt had a poor 2006 but he has found his form again this year, especially on the clay.

He took Rafael Nadal, the king of the dirt, all the way at the Hamburg Masters earlier this month, losing the third set 7-5 in an epic semi-final.

''I'm putting in the hard work, and it's paying off,'' he added. ''I think I can get better though.''

Nieminen, seeded 20, thrashed Mathieu Montcourt, of France, 6-1 6-1 6-4 on Court Three, and Hewitt is expecting a tough next match.

Marcos Baghdatis had it almost as straightforward as Nieminen in his second-round match.

The Cypriot 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.

Second-seed Maria Sharapova put aside her injury problems to breeze past America's Jill Craybas in straight sets in the second round.

The Russian admitted after her first-round win over Emilie Loit that the shoulder problem which had forced her to miss two months of the season was still troubling her.

But she looked in fine form as she thrashed Craybas 6-2 6-1 on Suzanne Lenglen court.

Sharapova broke her opponent twice in the first set and four times in the second, claiming the match on the first of her two match points.