Lleyton Hewitt's unlikely French Open campaign was brought to a shuddering halt by a straight-sets loss to unseeded Argentinian Gaston Gaudio.

Gaudio, the world No.44, sent the Australian packing with an emphatic 6-3 6-2 6-2 quarter-final win on a cold and grey Parisian day.

Hewitt, 23, has never gone beyond the quarters on the Roland Garros clay, losing to Juan Carlos Ferrero in 2001 on the only other occasion he reached the last eight.

Although the 12th seed entered the match with renewed confidence on his least favoured surface after four impressive wins to get this far, he was no match for the South American's natural clay game.

Gaudio's brilliant backhand from deep behind the baseline, deft drop-shots and ability to repel most of the Australian's attacks proved Hewitt still has much to learn about tennis on the red dirt.

It was Gaudio's second win over the former world No.1 in a fortnight, following his three-sets victory at the World Teams Cup on clay in Dussledorf and he now holds a 3-2 career advantage.

Neither player won a point on serve in the first two games in an oddly flat atmosphere before a sparsely populated, but rugged up, crowd on Court Philippe Chatrier.

A Hewitt double-fault gave Gaudio break point which the claycourter seized to take a 4-2 lead.

Gaudio, 25, saved a break back point in the next game when he persevered with the drop-shot which had cost him a couple of points early but was this time perfectly weighted to bring the game back to deuce.

Although Hewitt came back from 5-3 down twice in his three-set win over Xavier Malisse in the fourth round, Gaudio had no problems serving out for the set.

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