Roger Federer sprinted to victory over Marcel Granollers of Spain 4-6, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 on Sunday to move into the second week of the US Open after waiting out a rainstorm.
The Swiss second seed, a five-time New York champion, trailed 5-2 in the first set when the skies erupted and lightning flashed, forcing a two-hour weather interruption.
Once the deluge stopped, the pair returned to an empty Ashe stadium as day ticket holders were turfed out and the match suddenly transformed into part of the night session. It took a set for the arena to fill once again.
Federer proved unable to turn the early momentum in his favour, losing the opener.
But that was the last problem he faced as the 17-time grand slam champion raced away to victory in just under two hours with 57 winners and nine breaks of the Spaniard’s serve.
“The biggest difference was the wind,” said the winner. “It was quite windy when we got out, when we came back, basically it was gone.
“The court might have played a little bit slower cooling off from the rain. I just tried to play solid, figure things out a little bit.
I had to weather his storm and see if he could maintain that level of play or not and if I could lift my game up and see how that matched up. I think overall it worked out great at the end.
Federer improved to 51-4 in grand slam third rounds and has now won 12 of his last 13 matches.
The 33-year-old is into the New York fourth round for a 14th straight year and next plays another Spaniard after Roberto Bautista Agut beat Adrian Mannarino 7-5, 6-2, 6-3.
Spain’s David Ferrer finally ran out of gas as the fourth seed exited 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 to Frenchman Gilles Simon.
The defeat came in two and three-quarter hours as Simon wore down the 32-year-old baseline battler noted for his foot speed and never-say-die fighting spirit.
The defeat by Simon marked the second time in as many grand slams that Ferrer had gone out before the start of the second week of play.
Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych suffered through the rain pause before defeating Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
Gael Monfils won a French battle as he upset 12th seed Richard Gasquet 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 while Croatian 14th seed Marin Cilic stopped Kevin Anderson 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Austrian Dominic Thiem cemented his credentials as a name for the future, beating Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 to next face Berdych for the first time on the eve of his 21st birthday.
In the women’s fourth round, Caroline Wozniacki reached her first grand slam quarter-final in more than two and a half years with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 defeat of fifth seed Maria Sharapova.
The 10th-seeded Wozniacki last defeated five-time grand slam winner Sharapova in March 2011.
The Danish winner will play in the quarter-final against Italian 13th seed Sara Errani, who defeated Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-3, 2-6, 6-0.
Sharapova went down despite 30 winners to just 22 for Wozniacki, who came to the court trailing 2-5 in the series with the Russian. Sharapova played go-for-broke tennis, which resulted in 43 unforced errors; she was broken four times.
“This was an amazing win, I cannot describe the feeling,” said Wozniacki. “To beat a champion like Maria is an unbelievable feeling.”
“We played some great tennis,” she said, adding, “I think I’ll take a bath and relax - and I also deserve some chocolate.”
