Roger Federer was in a clinical mood as he saw off Spain’s Feliciano Lopez in straight sets to join Rafael Nadal in the US Open fourth round.

The No 3 seed, who came through five-set matches in the first two rounds, beat 35-year-old Lopez 6-3, 6-3, 7-5.

Five-time champion Federer, 36, goes on to face Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber in the last 16.

‘I’m really excited how I feel after two five-setters,’ the 19-time Grand Slam champion said. ‘It was clearly nice to go up two sets to love for a change. Feels different from there.’

Men’s top seed Rafael Nadal overcame stubborn resistance from Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer to reach the fourth round in New York. The Spaniard, 31, lost the first set, but fought back to win 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 after 3hr 16min.

Nadal saw 13 break points go begging before finally breaking the world No 59 after nearly two hours. He dropped just five more games on his way to a last-16 meeting with Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov.

No 6 seed Dominic Thiem registered a straight-sets win over Adrian Mannarino to reach the fourth round. The Austrian beat the French world No 34, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.

Thiem, who has reached the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows three times in the past four years, will play Juan Martin del Potro in the next round. The Argentinian beat Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 to set up the meeting with Thiem.

Women’s world No 1 Karolina Pliskova played down an arm injury after fighting back to beat China’s Shaui Zhang in the third round.

World No 26 Zhang had matchpoint at 5-4 in the second set, but Pliskova turned it around to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.

The result means she stays in the race with Elina Svitolina and Garbine Muguruza to end the tournament as No 1.

Pliskova, 25, will next face Jennifer Brady in the last 16, after the American beat Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3).

Elsewhere, American Coco Vandeweghe won 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 against 10th seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland. Ukrainian No 4 seed Svitolina beat American Shelby Rogers 6-4, 7-5 and Lucie Safarova of Czech Republic beat Japan’s Kurumi Nara 6-3, 6-2.

Meanwhile, Italian Fabio Fognini has been suspended from the US Open for verbally abusing an umpire in his first-round defeat by compatriot Stefano Travaglia.

The 30-year-old world No 26 was heard using insulting language towards Swedish official Louise Engzell.

He had reached the third round of the men’s doubles, but was withdrawn by tournament organisers.

Photo: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images