Australian Lleyton Hewitt equalled his best French Open performance by grinding his way into the quarter-finals with a 7-5 6-2 7-6 victory over unseeded Belgian Xavier Malisse.
Former world number one Hewitt, who reached the last eight in 2001, was simply too consistent throughout and eased to victory in two hours, 45 minutes to set up a clash with unseeded Argentine Gaston Gaudio.
Malisse, who beat former French Open champion Albert Costa in the previous round, found 12th seed Hewitt an even tougher proposition as the Australian made him fight for every point.
After winning a tight first set, Hewitt raced through the second set and though Malisse served for the third set at 5-3 and had five set points, Hewitt held on to clinch victory.
