I have given Federer a bit of a bashing over the last week, but I was firmly put in my place last night in the late night session! I actually thought Feli Lopez would beat him, but this was a bit of a masterclass on the Ashe Stadium! Will it continue? Will the back hold out that is the big question! On this particular showing he will take some beating. This was a totally different match up to Tiafoe and Youzhny, he will go back to that when he plays Kohlschreber next! Rafa Nadal dropped he opening set against Leonardo Mayer earlier in the day, before coming through in 4 sets as he did against Taro Daniel! Alexander ‘The Dog’ Dolgopolov is next up after he thrashed Victor Troicki! Dominic Thiem and Juan Martin Del Potro both impressed with straight sets wins over Adrian Mannarino and Roberto Bautista Agut respectively! This really will be some fourth round match and one that IMO deserves the night session on the Ashe! David Goffin advanced having led Gael Monfils 7/5 5/1 before the Frenchman pulled out with a leg injury. He had pre warned us about his injury as more bad luck put pay to his efforts here! Andrew Rublev has made the last 16 after he beat Damir Dzumhur in 4, backing up his win over Grigor Dimitrov in the previous round. On these showings he will like his chances against Goffin, the Belgian has not looked particularly convincing since his ankle injury sustained at he French! Finally in the gents, Fabio Fognini has been thrown out of the event for comments made to the umpire in his loss to Stefano Travaglia, in the opening round. He will now miss the doubles event after having apparently called the umpire a “whore” and “cocksucker” in Italian during his defeat! I don’t know whether I really should be laughing about this, probably not as I couldn’t possibly condone it! Fabio just does his thing though!

Karolina Pliskova escaped another scare, this time against Shuai Zhang! Coming from a set down and a breakdown in the final set on several ocassions! This has been anything but convincing from the top seed so far and she will need to up it in the latter stages! She faces American Jennifer Brady next, who won a final set breaker against Monica Niculescu, this will be a big hitting affair next up which should suit the Czech! Coco Vandeweghe edged past Aggie Radwanska and she will play Lucie Safarova who comfortably disposed of Kurumi Nara! Madison Keys set up an intriguing fourth round match against Elina Svitolina. The American got off to a very slow start against Elena Vesnina, looking out of sorts before finding her range and running away with the decider 6/1. She cannot surely afford to give the Ukranian the same head start, she’s going to have to be consistently on it in this one! The last round of 16 clash in the top half will be between Daria Kasatkina and Kaia Kanepi. Kastakina ousted Jelena Ostapenko 6/3 6/2 and qualifier Kanepi beat Naomi Osaka 7/5 in the decider! It has been seven years since the Estonian reached the quarter-finals here in NYC!

The weather looks to be hampering play at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center today! I am flying back to the Uk tonight, so I will be doing a joint day 7/8 blog on my return on Monday.

Andy Del Potro