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The Williams sisters, defending champion Marin Cilic, world number one Novak Djokovic, and two-time champion Rafael Nadal are all safely through to the third round of the US Open after contrasting victories on Day 3.
Cilic remains on track to meet 2011 champion Djokovic in the semi-finals after he defeated Evgeny Donskoy in his first match at Arthur Ashe Stadium since he defeated Kei Nishikori in last year’s final.
He now faces Mikhail Kukushkin, after the Kazakh upset Grigor Dimitrov in five sets.
The Bulgarian’s loss continues what has been a poor season for the former Wimbledon semi-finalist, which included losing in the fourth round of the Australian Open, the first at the French, and the third at Wimbledon.
2011 champion Djokovic was rarely troubled in his straight-sets victory over Andreas Haider-Maurer in the last match of the night session at Arthur Ashe. He now faces Italian veteran Andreas Seppi, who famously defeated Roger Federer at the Australian Open in January for a last-16 berth.
Nadal continued his march to a likely quarter-final showdown against Djokovic after he defeated Argentine Diego Schwartzman in straight sets. It marked his 22nd victory from his last 23 matches at Flushing Meadows, the only blemish being his loss to the Serb in the 2011 final.
The Spaniard, who missed the 2012 and 2014 tournaments due to injury on either side of his second title win in 2013, now faces Italian Fabio Fognini, who has beaten Nadal twice on clay courts this year. It will be their fourth meeting this year, with Nadal winning the other meeting in Hamburg in July.
Frenchmen Benoit Paire and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also advanced, with Paire backing up his first-round upset of Kei Nishikori with a four-set victory over Marsel Ilhan, and Tsonga making light work of Spaniard Marcel Granollers with a straight-sets win.
Should they win their respective third round matches against Tommy Robredo and Sergiy Stakhovsky, the pair could meet in an all-French fourth round match, with the winner likely to face defending champion Cilic in the quarter-finals.
Spanish seventh seed David Ferrer also made it through to the third round for the sixth consecutive year; he next faces 27th seed Jeremy Chardy for a fourth round berth, where Cilic is expected to await.
In the women’s draw, world number one Serena Williams survived a spirited first set challenge from Kiki Bertens to move into the third round, setting up a clash with compatriot Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
Mattek-Sands, dubbed the ‘Lady GaGa of tennis’, defeated fellow American CoCo Vandeweghe to progress to the third round of the US Open for the first time in 14 attempts, dating back to 2001.
Another American, 19th seed Madison Keys, and 15th-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska also advanced and will meet for the right to possibly face Serena Williams in the round of 16.
Two-time champion Venus Williams remains on track to face her younger sister in the quarter-finals, after beating a second-set blip to defeat Irina Falconi in three sets. First she first has to overcome Belinda Bencic, and then one of Anett Kontaveit or Madison Brengle.
The 35-year-old has not reached the quarter-finals of the US Open since 2010 (nor a Grand Slam semi-final since then either) but will fancy her chances against Bencic, whom she has a 3-0 head-to-head record against.
Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic backed up her first-round win over 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova by defeating Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski, while 2014 semi-finalist Ekaterina Makarova also moved through.
After enduring a poor season leading up to the US Open, Eugenie Bouchard appears to have rediscovered some form, reaching the third round for the second consecutive year by defeating Slovenia’s Polona Hercog in three sets.
The glamorous Canadian, who has dropped to 25th in the world rankings as a result of her dismal form this year, will fancy her chances of reaching the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows for the first time thanks to a wide open draw.
The 21-year-old would have dreaded facing Ana Ivanovic in the third round, but will instead face Dominika Cibulkova, who backed up her win over the Serb by coming from a set down to defeat American qualifier Jessica Pegula.
The other match in the fourth section of the draw, which also lost seeds Carla Suarez Navarro and Jelena Jankovic in the first round, will see Italian doubles specialist Roberta Vinci face off against Colombian Mariana Duque-Marino.
The second round of matches continues on Friday morning (AEST), with Victoria Azarenka, Simona Halep, Caroline Wozniacki, Roger Federer and Andy Murray among those in action.
Australian interest will centre on Samantha Stosur’s match against Evgeniya Rodina, and the all-Australian clash between Bernard Tomic and Lleyton Hewitt. The trio are the only Australian hopefuls remaining in either singles draw, though there is guaranteed to be one in the third round by way of the Tomic-Hewitt clash.
Matches to watch on Day 4
Victoria Azarenka (20) versus Yanina Wickmayer
Kateryna Bondarenko versus Simona Halep (2)
Adrian Mannarino versus Andy Murray (3)
Steve Darcis versus Roger Federer (2)
Petra Cetkovska versus Caroline Wozniacki (4)
Evgeniya Rodina versus Samantha Stosur (22)
John Isner (13) versus Mikhail Youzhny
Petra Kvitova (5) versus Nicole Gibbs
Camila Giorgi versus Sabine Lisicki (24)
Bernard Tomic (24) versus Lleyton Hewitt
Tomas Berdych (6) versus Jurgen Melzer
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