Novak Djokovic was in imperious form as he swept aside Kyle Edmund with a 6-2 6-1 6-4 win in the US Open fourth round.
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Italian seventh seed Roberta Vinci was first through to the US Open quarters, beating Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko 7-6 (5) 6-2.
The tennis ace will next play No. 9-ranked Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Tuesday.
From then on it was relatively straightforward for Djokovic, until his ongoing injury problems flared up again and he needed medical attention to his right arm in the third set.
“It’s been a great tournament for me”, said Edmund. I’m really glad to be back. “I haven’t played much tennis”.
Djokovic broke back to 3-all, and after a trade of service holds, he took the last two games. But after dropping serve to Edmund he regrouped an emerged victor in three sets, 6-2, 6-1, 6-4. The good thing is, I feel like there’s a lot of stuff I can improve on and get better, as well, and the level I’m playing at.
“It was obviously tough”, he said.
“I learned a lot from tonight”, Edmund said.
The world number one secured his passage into the quarter-finals despite needing treatment on his upper arm during the third set.
Angelique Kerber was the last woman through to the quarters after winning her night match against Petra Kvitova. “So coming into the second week of a grand slam, it’s exactly where I want to be”.
“When it happens it will be an unbelievable feeling, because that was also one of my dreams when I was a kid”.
The world no.25 defeated the Spaniard 6-1 2-6 6-4 3-6 7-6 (8-6), to leave the 14-time grand slam victor to debate over what had let him down this time.
The 29-year-old has won 12 major titles in his career, including two U.S. Open championships.
Pouille, 22, and ranked 25th in the world, lived up to the promise of his quarterfinal run at Wimbledon, emerging from a roller-coaster ride with a 6-1 2-6 6-4 3-6 7-6 (8/6) triumph over the Spanish superstar.
The taut battle came down to the fifth-set tiebreaker.
It came right after he was broken for the first time and was part of a stretch of three games in a row for Edmund.
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Against Tsonga he mustered only five aces and was broken six times by the 2008 Australian Open runner-up, who has reached at least the semifinals of every Grand Slam except this one. After some remarkable matches involving British players here, Andy Murray is left in customary isolation when he faces Grigor Dimitrov on Monday in the last sixteen.
