Federer came through his match with Australia's Sam Groth 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to set up a third round meeting with Spaniard Marcel Granollers.

"I thought I did pretty well from the start, I created quite a few opportunities," said the Swiss, who is chasing a sixth title at Flushing Meadows.

"I'm really happy how I played on the return."

Elsewhere in men's draw there was a straight forward win for seventh seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria who beat Israel's Dudi Sela 6-1, 6-1, 6-2, while fourth seed David Ferrer of Spain was awarded a walkover after Australian Bernard Tomic pulled out with a hip injury before they took to the court.

Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych eventually overcame Slovakia's Martin Klizan in a five-set clash 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

"The conditions were tough again," said 28-year-old Berdych.

"It was quite windy, as well.

"He played good, so I'm happy to have that on my belt, to win another five-setter, and just go forward."

Tomas Berdych (left) came through a tough five set match against Martin Klizan in New York ©Getty Images



Meanwhile on the women's side, 2006 champion Sharapova, from Russia, had no problems in despatching Germany's Sabine Lisicki 6-2, 6-4 to reach the fourth round.

Ninth seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia was even more comfortable as she dropped just one game against Sweden's Johanna Larsson but a number of other big names failed to progress.

Two-time champion Venus Williams went down 6-0, 0-6, 7-6 to Italian Sara Errani.

The American had the opportunity to serve out the match after coming from behind twice in the third set but was ultimately forced into too many errors by the tenacious Errani, who had not won more than three games in a set against Williams in three previous meetings.

"It was unbelievably good," said the Italian, who will now take on Croatian qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the next round.

"I will remember forever that moment."

Two-time champion Venus Williams has crashed out of the US Open to Sara Errani ©Getty Images



Lucic-Baroni beat Romanian second seed Halep 7-6, 6-2 to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time since making it to the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 1999.

"I wanted this so bad," said the 32-year-old, who only played two professional matches between 2004 and 2006 due to a string of off-court problems.

"So many times I would get to a place where I thought I could do it.

"Then I wanted it so bad that I kind of burned out.

"I'm so happy."

Germany's sixth seed Angelique Kerber was also beaten 6-1, 7-5 by Switzerland's Belinda Bencic.

But tenth seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark had no problems against German Andrea Petkovic, winning 6-2, 6-2.

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