New York (AFP)

That's it, Roger Federer found his good feelings and qualified for Sunday for his 13th quarterfinal of the US Open, a stadium that did not reach the world No.2 Ashleigh Barty.

Public favorite Serena Williams took over from Federer on court Arthur-Ashe, waiting for defending champion Novak Djokovic at the end of the night session.

"It was great, like the previous game I had great sensations, but he did not play at his best," said Federer of his day's opponent, Belgian David Goffin ( 15th).

The world No.3 had lost a set early in the game in his first two rounds, before mastering head and shoulders in the third round the British Daniel Evans 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 in 1:20.

He was even more severe with Goffin than he swept 6-2, 6-2, 6-0 in 1:19.

Federer scored 10 aces, scored 83% on his first serve, converted 9 of his 10 break points, scored 35 winners and committed just 17 unforced errors ...

"I'm very happy with my level today," said Switzerland, who has five Flushing Meadows titles with Pete Sampras and Jimmy Connors.

He qualified for his 13th quarterfinal at the US Open, like Andre Agassi but four more lengths of the record of Connors. In total, he will play, at age 38 against Grigor Dimitrov (78) or Alex de Minaur (38), his 56th quarterfinal Grand Slam, a record.

- Surprise Barty -

The surprise of the start of the day came from court Louis-Armstrong where the N.2 world Ashleigh Barty, laureate of Roland-Garros, was eliminated by the Chinese Wang Qiang (18th) 6-2, 6-4 in 1h22.

"I just tried to do my best," said Wang, who had never reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam.

In the next round, she will face Serena Williams (8th) or Petra Martic (22nd).

How will she prepare for this next match? "It's my coach's job to tell me how to play, I'm going to enjoy this win," she said.

At 27, she had only defeated World No. 5 player Elina Svitolina (fifth) in Hong Kong last year.

For his part, Barty could only see the superiority of his opponent of the day: "Qiang was very strong, very strong, she was able to play very deep to put me in difficulty, I had some opportunities, but 'is frustrating because on the important points today Qiang has played much better,' said the 23-year-old Australian.

N.3 world Karolina Pliskova was tied for a set with the Briton Johanna Konta (16th) at 14:30 (18:30 GMT).

The Czech Republic hopes to win its first Grand Slam title and eventually conquer the wavering world throne of Naomi Osaka.

© 2019 AFP