New York: Top seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain breezed past unseeded Matteo Arnaldi 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 to enter the quarter finals of the US Open on Monday.

Madison Keys, seeded 17th, returned to the US Open quarter finals for the first time in five years with a 6-1, 6-3 thrashing of No.3 seed Jessica Pegula in just 61 minutes.

Keys was previously the runner-up to Sloane Stephens in 2017, and a semi-finalist in 2018. The result also marks the first time that Keys, a quarter finalist at Wimbledon, has made the last eight of consecutive majors since the Australian Open and Roland Garros in 2018.

Pegula had come into the match having won 11 of her past 13 matches in the North American hard-court swing. Keys’ record over the same period was 6-2, and the 28-year-old was beset by a hip injury that forced her to withdraw from Montreal. Pegula had also won their only previous meeting in the 2022 San Diego quarter finals.

Keys will bid for a third US Open semi-final against Wimbledon champion and No.9 seed Marketa Vondrousova, who overcame Peyton Stearns 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-2.

Business as usual

After a five-set nailbiter in the previous round, Novak Djokovic was in no mood for another tense evening on Sunday and the Serb cruised into the last eight of the year’s final grand slam with a 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 win over Borna Gojo.

Djokovic had endured a far more testing match on Friday, having to come back from two-sets down against Laslo Djere to keep alive his bid for a fourth US Open title that would see him match Margaret Court’s record haul of 24 grand slams.

On Sunday, the 36-year-old Serb broke to open the contest and was never threatened as Gojo managed only a single break chance in the entire match.

Djokovic committed just 12 unforced errors compared to 40 by the 105th ranked Croat, who was under constant pressure and had his serve broken five times.

Next up for Djokovic is top-ranked American and ninth seed Taylor Fritz, who advanced with a tidy 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-4 win over Swiss qualifier Dominic Stricker.

For the first time since 2005 there will be three American men in the last eight, Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton being the other two apart from Fritz.

And there is certain to be at least one US man through to the semi-finals after Tiafoe swatted aside Australian wildcard Rinky Hijikata 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 and Shelton beat compatriot Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to set up a last eight all-American clash.

Bopanna loses

India’s Rohan Bopanna crashed out of the mixed doubles event. Partnering Indonesian Aldila Sutjiadi, the pair went down 2-6, 5-7 to the American duo of Ben Shelton and Taylor Townsend in a second round match.