American 20th seed Andy Roddick delayed his retirement by advancing to the fourth round of the US Open on Sunday with a 7-5 7-6 (7-1) 4-6 6-4 victory over Italy’s Fabio Fognini.
Roddick, the 2003 US Open winner, who says this will be the final tournament of his career, will play for a spot in the quarter-finals against 2009 winner Juan Martin Del Potro, the seventh seed from Argentina.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic shook the sleep from his eyes to reach the last 16 while low-key fourth seed David Ferrer ended Lleyton Hewitt’s latest attempt to roll back the years.
Djokovic coasted past French 30th seed Julien Benneteau 6-3 6-2 6-2 despite being forced to open up play on day seven at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Ferrer, a semi-finalist in 2007, clinched a 7-6 (11-9) 4-6 6-3 6-0 win over Australian wildcard Hewitt, the 2001 champion who is now ranked 125th.
Second-seeded Djokovic didn’t face a single break point in his 97-minute victory as he fired 13 aces and 41 winners in his fourth on the trot against Benneteau.
The 25-year-old hasn’t dropped serve since the first game of his first-round match and has made the last 16 for a sixth successive year by losing just 14 games in three rounds.
He goes on to face either Swiss 18th seed Stanislas Wawrinka or 14th-seeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov for a spot in the quarter-finals.
“It was an early match for me. Usually I don’t like to play the first match,” said Djokovic.
“So it was important to stay strong and commit to every point.”
Spanish fourth seed Ferrer – a semi-finalist already this year at the French Open and a quarter-finalist at the Australian Open and Wimbledon – has five titles to his name in 2012 to be second only to world No.1 Roger Federer.
“I’m having the best season of my career and I think it’s the right time. I’m 30 years old,” said Ferrer, who will next face either French 13th seed Richard Gasquet or 245-ranked reigning US college champion Steve Johnson.
Hewitt, 31, and Ferrer were two of eight players 30-or-older to reach the third round, the most since 1974.
The former world No.1 Hewitt, who has not reached the last 16 at the US Open since 2006, and has been plagued by groin and foot problems, committed 72 unforced errors and squandered five set points in the first set tie-breaker.
“All in all, I’m happy. It takes a quality player to beat me,” said Hewitt.
Del Potro defeated 63rd-ranked compatriot Leonardo Mayer 6-3 7-5 7-6 (11-9) in a three-hour 20-minute marathon which was wrapped up on his sixth match point.
Del Potro’s win in New York three years ago was the only occasion in the last 30 majors that the champion wasn’t Federer, Rafael Nadal or Djokovic.
Elsewhere, Serb eighth seed Janko Tipsarevic, a quarter-finalist in 2011, takes on Slovenian qualifier Grega Zemlja with the winner to face either US ninth seed John Isner or German 19th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber.