New York (AFP)

Roger Federer and Serena Williams are at home at Flushing Meadows, each flying over their third round match in Arthur-Ashe Cathedral on Friday and will play their 18th and 17th rounds respectively at the US Open.

Fiona Ferro (74th) started at 16h00 (22h00 French), her match against the Chinese Wang Qiang (18th) who beat her during their three confrontations on hard.

Serena Williams, looking for a 24th Grand Slam title to tie Margaret Court's record, played Czech Karolina Muchova (44) 6-3, 6-2.

"I put a lot of intensity, which is good," commented the world N.8 who dreams of a 7th trophy at Flushing Meadows.

Unconvincing in the first two rounds, Roger Federer also flew over the 3rd: it took only 1h20 to send the British Daniel Evans (58th) in the locker room (6-2, 6-2, 6-1).

"I am very happy, he said (...) I knew how to dominate everything I wanted and I found that I had the margin".

Programmed at midday in the sun while playing at night and under the roof until then, the Swiss was much more effective than in his first two rounds where he had conceded each time the first run.

"I knew how to handle the three conditions of play that will be seen later," he said.

"The opponents are getting better and better now and it was important for me to prove to myself that I could do a full match, not like the first two where I had a lot of trouble in the beginning," he said.

"And there I feel 100% physically, after the first game it was still stress, tension, aches ... and now I'm going into this fourth round with a good feeling, "he warned.

- An extra day of rest -

He qualified for the third round on Wednesday while taking advantage of the roof of the Arthur-Ashe court while Evans' match was postponed to Thursday because of the rain.

Friday, the sun shone on Flushing Meadows: "the game was faster than the evening and that under the roof that makes the atmosphere humid", explained Federer to whom these conditions are better.

Last year, it was in the 8th finals that the Swiss, who shared with Pete Sampras and Jimmy Connors the record of 5 titles at Flushing Meadows, was eliminated by the Australian John Millman.

In the women's draw, N.2 World Ashleigh Barty and N.3 Karolina Pliskova, who could become N.1 at the end of the tournament, also qualified for the 8th.

But Pliskova did it in pain against Ons Jabeur (62), 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, while it was the Tunisian who was injured.

- Bouchée -

Finalist 2016 and looking for a first Grand Slam title, the Czech seemed to have to make a bite of his opponent when it showed early in the game signs of severe pain in the right knee.

"She played a lot better from the second set and achieved incredible points," said the Czech to explain her own difficulties.

After taking the break at the start of the third set, she folded under the winning shots of Jabeur and nearly lost her faceoff, but she maintained her advantage to complete the match.

"I had to serve well to get by and especially save break points," she said.

On the other hand, last year's semifinalist Kei Nishikori (7th) did not get out of the trap Alex de Minaur (38th). The 20-year-old Australian won 6-2, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 against the Japanese who reached the quarter-finals of the other three Grand Slam 2019 tournaments.

Men's title-holder Novak Djokovic will play the final match of the night session on Arthur-Ashe Court, while the evening will end on Louis-Armstrong court with the return of Daniil Medvedev (5th), physically well underway after his 3rd tour Thursday.

© 2019 AFP