World number one wins in 79 minutes while struggling Murray enters quarters
World number one Novak Djokovic on Tuesday raced into the US Open quarter-finals for the loss of just three games while defending champion Andy Murray was again involved in a four-set duel.
Top seeded Djokovic, the 2011 champion, wrapped up a place in his 18th successive Grand Slam quarter-final when he crushed Spanish world number 43 Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 in just 79 minutes.
Andy Murray, the third seed, reached the quarter-finals for a third successive year with a 6-7 (5/7), 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 win over Denis Istomin, the 64th-ranked Uzbek.
Djokovic will next tackle Russian 21st seed Mikhail Youzhny, a semi-finalist in 2006 and 2010, over whom he has an 5-3 career lead.
Youzhny carved out a four-hour, 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 7-5 win over 2001 champion lleyon Hewitt after trailing 4-1 in the fourth set and 5-2 in the fifth.
Swiss ninth seed Stanislas Wawrinka reached the last eight by eliminating Czech fifth seed Tomas Berdych, a semi-finalist last year, 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6), 6-2.
Wawrinka will now face Murray for a place in the last four, trailing 8-5 in their series, although he did win their 2010 US Open third-round meeting.
Djokovic, bidding to make the final for a fourth successive year, hit 34 winners and faced just one break point against Granollers, one of four Spaniards in the last 16.
But Granollers' challenge had already been fatally undermined by having played three five-set matches and spending almost 10 hours on court, twice as long as Djokovic, who has yet to lose a set. “I definitely played one of the best matches that I've played in my life here at the Arthur Ashe Stadium,” Djokovic said after winning the last 15 games of the one-sided tie.
He also won the first 25 points in a row on his serve to start the match. “This is probably the first time I've experienced something like that. I can't say I have one of the strongest serves on the tour but I served pretty well.”
Serena, li reach semis
Ruthless defending champion Serena Williams breezed into the US Open semi-finals to book a showdown with Chinese fifth seed li Na, who fought off nerves to battle her way into the final four.
World number one Williams, a 16-time Grand Slam winner seeking her fifth US Open crown and her ninth title of the year, dispatched 18th seed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-0, 6-0, in 52 minutes on the Spaniard's 25th birthday.
li, the 2011 French Open champion, overcame nervous feelings for a 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2 victory over Russian 24th seed Ekaterina Makarova.
Williams is 8-1 all-time against li but was tested 7-5, 7-5 in their most recent matchup last month in a US Open run-up semi-final at Cincinnati.
li seized a 4-2 tie-breaker lead but lost five of the next six points, three of them including the last with forehands beyond the baseline, and had to rally by breaking Makarova's last two service games in the third set.
At least one other over-30 semi-finalist is assured, matching Wimbledon in 1994 with three over-30 players in the last four, a record that would fall if 48th-ranked Daniela Hantuchova upsets Victoria Azarenka on Wednesday.