Roger Federer and Andy Murray had vastly contrasting wins on Day 4 of the U.S. Open, as the 2001 champion Lleyton Hewitt of Australia bowed out in his trademark never say die attitude. The two were joined by the French Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych, the top American John Isner and the in-form Frenchman Richard Gasquet in the round of 32 of the final grand slam of the year played at the Flushing Meadows in New York.

Five time champion Federer (2004-2008) dropped just four games in his 6-1,6-2,6-1 demolition of the veteran Belgian Steve Darcis. The second seed has lost just nine games in his two matches so far and is now on a 16 set winning streak as he won the ATP 1000 event in Cincinnati, Ohio without dropping a set in five matches.

Murray, the winner of the Rogers Cup in Montreal the week before that has had to face two of the highest ranked players to miss out being seeded. The 35th ranked Frenchman Adrienne Mannarino took the first two sets but Murray rallied in style to boost his title claims as he won the remaining three sets for the loss of just five games. His winning scoreline was 5-7,4-6,6-1,6-3,6-1.

Lleyton Hewitt, making his farewell appearance in New York, also rallied from a two set deficit against his countryman Bernard Tomic but bowed out 3-6,2-6,6-3,7-5,5-7 in a match lasting two hours and forty seven minutes. Stan Wawrinka won all three sets in a tie-break against the promising young Korean Hyeon Chung to advance to the third round.

Tomas Berdych and John Isner recorded straight sets wins. Gasquet prevailed in four sets against the Dutchman Robin Haase. Among the other seeds to progress were the German Phillipp Kohlschreiber, the Spaniard Guillermo Garcia Lopez, the Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci, Austria’s Dominic Thiem, South African Kevin Anderson and the Serb Victor Troicki.

The American Jack Sock conceded his match trailing 1-2 in sets and also down 1-2 in the fourth set against another Belgian Ruben Bemelmans. However another American Donald Young followed up his upset win over the 11th seeded Frenchman Giles Simon with a four set win over Britain’s Slovenia born Aijaz Bedene. The Croat Ivo Karlovic who is chasing the all time record of 10,183 aces held by countryman Goran Ivanisevic will have to wait for a while as he was beaten in five sets by Jiri Vesley of the Czech Republic.

Here is a list of round of 32 matches to be played on Day 5 in the men’s section with my pick mentioned first :-

Novak Djokovic (1) v. Andreas Seppi (25)
David Goffin (14) v. Roberto Bautista Agut (23)
Milos Raonic (10) v. Feliciano Lopez (18)
Rafael Nadal (8) v. Fabio Fognini (32)
Benoit Paire v. Tommy Robredo (26)
Jo-Wilfred Tsonga (19) v. Sergiy Stakhovsky
Marin Cilic (9) v. Mikhail Kukushkin
Jeremy Chardy (27) v. David Ferrer (7)

In the bottom half of the women’s draw, Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova advanced along with Angelique Kerber, Sabine Lisicki, Andrea Petkovic and Victoria Azarenka easily advanced without dropping a set. Also winning were the 2011 champion Samantha Stosur and the veteran Italians Sara Errani and Flavia Pannetta. However last year’s finalist, the 4th seeded Caroline Wozniacki bowed out 4-6,7-5,6-7(1) to Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic.

Wimbledon finalist Garbine Muguruza of Spain was also beaten by Britain’s Johanna Konta 6-7(4), 7-6(4),2-6. The remaining players to reach the round of 32 are Anna Smiedlova, the Americans Varvara Lepchenko and Shelby Rogers, Mona Berthel and Barbora Strycova.

– Rasesh Mehta [Rasesh Mehta is an analyst with the Tennis Galaxy.You can reach him at the email: sportzcosmos@gmail.com]