Novak Djokovic strolled into the US Open third round on Wednesday with a 90-minute demolition of Andreas Haider-Maurer that even had Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx on his feet.
The world No.1 and 2011 champion, who is bidding to reach the final for the sixth time, eased to a 6-4 6-1 6-2 win over the 52nd-ranked Austrian.
It was the second match in succession that Djokovic had not faced a break point.
Serb top seed Djokovic, already with the Australian Open and Wimbledon titles under his belt this year, goes on to face Italian veteran Andreas Seppi for a place in the last 16.
Djokovic holds a 10-0 career lead over Seppi, the 25th seed.
His performance brought enthusiastic applause from Hollywood A-lister Foxx, the star of “Ray” and “Django Unchained,” who was sitting just behind Djokovic’s coach Boris Becker in the players box on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Such was the ease of his night’s work that Djokovic marked his victory by dancing on court with a burly fan who presented the player with a matching ‘I Love NY’ T-shirt.
“It took a while to get on court. It’s not easy to start a match at 10pm,” said Djokovic.
“I have never played Andreas on a hard court before so it took a while to get used to his positioning.
“He has a big serve and it was tough at the start to get into the rallies.”
The humid conditions persuaded Djokovic to bring a box of sawdust onto court to dry his hands at changeovers.
“You need to be prepared,” he said. “Also, luckily, I have enough shirts.”
Defending champion Marin Cilic and seventh seed David Ferrer moved closer to a fourth-round meeting with comfortable victories.
Rafael Nadal, meanwhile, took his US Open record to 22 wins in his last 23 matches when he beat diminutive Argentine Diego Schwartzman 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 7-5 to reach the third round.
Croatian ninth seed Cilic, who’s aiming to become the first repeat men’s champion since Roger Federer ran off five in a row from 2004-2008, fired 19 aces and advanced to the third round by defeating 139th-ranked Russian qualifier Evgeny Donskoy 6-2 6-3 7-5 at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“This court is very special to me. It brings such positive memories,” Cilic said.
Spain’s Ferrer, the 2013 French Open runner-up who missed the past two-and-a-half months with an elbow injury, downed 102nd-ranked Serb Filip Krajinovic 7-5 7-5 7-6 (7-4).
“I’m very happy I’m in the third round,” said Ferrer. “It’s a nice comeback playing on these courts. It’s not easy. Conditions are very difficult with this humidity.”
Ferrer next meets France’s Jeremy Chardy next while Cilic plays either Grigor Dimitrov or Mikhail Kukushkin.
Eighth-seeded Nadal, the 2010 and 2013 champion, came back from a break down in both the second and third sets to book a clash with volatile Italian Fabio Fognini for a place in the last-16.
Nadal lost to Fognini in Rio and Barcelona this year before gaining revenge over the Italian in the Hamburg final in July.
“I feel lucky to be through. It was very humid and Diego was very aggressive so to take the first set was very important,” said Nadal, who missed the US Open in 2012 and 2014 through injury.
