Sock shocks Cilic in NYC

After being given a walkover in his second round match, Novak Djokovic was leading 4-2 in his third round contest when Mikhail Youzhny retired, meaning that the number one seed has reached the round of sixteen without the match practice he was expecting, and that his team was hoping for.

Still, he is there, while some pre tournament threats on his side of the draw are not, and Day Five of the US Open cleared the path of another hurdle in the form of 7th seed Marin Cilic, thumped in straight sets by 26th seeded American Jack Sock, to the delight of the mostly American crowd.

Another seed in Novak's quarter was John Isner, and the 20th seed didn't provide as much joy as Sock for his home audience, dismissed by an increasingly confident Brit, Kyle Edmund, who presents himself as the immediate next challenge for the reigning champion to negotiate.  

So that leaves Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as the highest ranked player, apart from Djokovic, remaining in his quarter, after the popular French player removed Kevin Anderson from calculations.  

In the other quarter of the top half of the draw, 4th seed Rafa Nadal continues to fly the Spanish flag, too accomplished for Russian Andrey Kuznetsov.  However, France won the day over Spain in two other third round matches in that section.

24th seed Lucas Pouille outlasted 15th seed Roberto Bautista Agut in five sets, earning a meeting with Rafa, while 10th seed Gael Monfils needed just three to take out Nicolas Almagro.

Monfils will play Baghdatis in the round of sixteen in what will be guaranteed entertainment for those present.

In one of the finest matches of the tournament to this point, 8th seed Madison Keys was pushed to the limit, and proved she has the mettle to go further in Grand Slam events than she historically has.

Naomi Osaka brought the best out of the American who hit 37 winners in the 7-5 4-6 7-6 victory, a success taking over two hours to complete.

The fourth round encounter will be tough for Keys though because Caroline Wozniacki has rediscovered her very best tennis in the past week.  The twice finalist is a dangerous proposition for anyone left in the field.  Her destruction of Monica Niculescu was clinical.

The other matches in the Keys quarter were won easily by 13th seed Johanna Konta at the expense of 24th seed Belinda Bencic, and Anastasija Sevastova, who followed up her upset of third seed Muguruza with a more expected defeat of unseeded Kateryna Bondarenko.

The upset of Day Five in Women's Singles came courtesy of Ukranian Lesia Tsurenko, who survived a first set deficit to provide the exit directions for 12th seed Dominika Cibulkova.  Ranked 99, Tsurenko has been as high as 33 and she will be anything but easy opposition for 7th seed Roberta Vinci in the round of sixteen.

Vinci began like a house on fire against Germany's Carina Witthoeft, taking the opening set 6-0, but ultimately requiring a third set to win 6-0 5-7 6-3.

The remaining fourth round match in this quarter will be fought between 2nd seed Angie Kerber and 14th seed Petra Kvitova.  Petra avenged her New Haven semi final loss to Elina Svitolina just a week ago with a straight sets win over the 22nd seed.

Kerber wasted 55 minutes and two games in eliminating American qualifier Catherine Bellis.  

The German star won an astonishing 68% of points from the Bellis serve.

The rest of the third round matches are to be played on Day Six and the matches of great interest appear to be Juan Martin Del Potro v David Ferrer and Karolina Pliskova v Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.  

The locals will be keen to watch the continued progress of American Jared Donaldson.

Ranked 122, he has won through Qualifying (3 matches) and beaten 12th seed David Goffin and Viktor Troicki (a top 40 player) in the first two rounds of the main draw.  His next assignment is Ivo Karlovic.