Mark Philippoussis was knocked out of the French Open in the second round in straight sets by Spain's Carlos Moya.

The 1998 champion and fourth seed was too strong and clever on his favourite clay surface for the Australian, beating him 6-2 6-4 7-6 (9-7).

It was a repeat of last year's second round at Roland Garros in which Moya beat Philippoussis in three sets.

The loss left top seed Lleyton Hewitt as the only Australian left in the men's singles with Evie Dominikovic the only woman.

Dominikovic faces third seed Venus Williams in the second round on Thursday and Hewitt faces a tough match against Russian Nikolay Davydenko.

Philippoussis saved three match points in a thrilling tiebreaker but a double fault on the fourth put him out of the tournament.

The tone was set early when Philippoussis was broken in his first two service games as he struggled to land a first serve and committed a string of unforced errors.

The world No.52 continued hitting the ball as hard as he could but invariably his shots went long or into the net.

When they landed, the Spaniard had an answer for almost everything, regularly sending them straight back and beyond Philippoussis with brilliant groundstrokes.

After giving up an early break in the third, Philippoussis stretched Moya to the last point in the tie breaker but the Spaniard marked himself as a major contender for the title with a classy display.

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