Former champions Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal battled into the US Open last 32 while the women’s draw lost the fifth seed from its top eight.
Federer recorded his 80th career win in New York but he needed five sets for the second successive match before claiming a 6-1, 6-7(3), 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 triumph over Mikhail Youzhny.
It was his 17th win in 17 meetings with the Russian, who, at 35, is his junior by just one year.
World No. 1 Nadal, meanwhile, saw off Japan’s World No. 121 Taro Daniel 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 after being blown off court in the first set.
Federer, 36, and the five-time champion at the US Open, next faces another 35-year-old, Feliciano Lopez of Spain, for a place in the last 16. His record against Lopez is just as solid — 12-0.
The Australian Open and Wimbledon champion Federer fired 63 winners and 68 unforced errors.
Youzhny admitted he had cramped, which meant he could move left to right but not forward and back.
“That was hard to watch,” said Federer. “But this was probably the best match we have played against each other.” Top seed Nadal, the 2010 and 2013 champion, was rocked by New York-born Daniel in the first set.
But Daniel, who has never beaten a top-10 player, paid the price for his all-out assault as Nadal prevailed to book a third round date with Argentine lucky loser Leonardo Mayer. Andrey Rublev became the second teenager to make the third round when he stunned Bulgarian seventh seed Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 7-6(3), 6-3.
Rublev, just 19 and the World No. 53, joins 18-year- old Denis Shapovalov of Canada in the last 32 at a Grand Slam event for the first time.
Also going through to the last 32 was 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro, the 24th seeded Argentine, who saw off Spanish qualifier Adrian Menendez-Maceiras 6-2, 6-3, 7-6(3).
Belgian ninth seed David Goffin beat Guido Pella of Argentina 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 7-6(4), 6-3 in a marathon 4hr 12min match.
In the women’s draw, Russian eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 champion, saw her outside chances of taking the World No. 1 ranking end when she lost to Japan’s Kurumi Nara 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
India’s leading doubles players Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza began their US Open campaigns with victories in their respective events, albeit, in contrasting fashion.
Bopanna and Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas shrugged off a surprise first set lapse to regroup and beat American pair of Bradley Klahn and Scott Lipksy 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the opening round of the men’s doubles event.
In the women’s doubles, Sania and her Chinese partner Shuai Peng defeated the Croatian team of Petra Martic and Donna Vekic 6-4, 6-1 in the opening round.
