NEW YORK, Sept 4, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Rafael Nadal defeated close friend Richard
Gasquet for the 18th time to reach the US Open fourth round on Saturday as
world number one Iga Swiatek made the last 16 for a second successive year.

Four-time champion Nadal took his record over Gasquet to a perfect 18-0 with
a 6-0, 6-1, 7-5 victory to stay on course for a 23rd Grand Slam title.

Nadal has now won 34 straight sets against Frenchman Gasquet who he first
played as a junior.

On Saturday, he was barely troubled, winning the first nine games of the
contest before Gasquet got on the board.

Next up for the Australian and French Open champion is 22nd seed Frances
Tiafoe for a place in the quarter-finals.

"He's a great player, very charismatic, very fast," said Nadal of the
American.

Tiafoe made the last 16 for a third successive year by seeing off Argentina's
Diego Schwartzman 7-6 (9/7), 6-4, 6-4.

The 36-year-old Nadal showed no ill effects of the bloodied nose he suffered
when he accidentally bounced his racquet into his face in the second round.

"It's a little bit bigger than usual but it's okay," he joked.

- Alcaraz breaks shoe -

Carlos Alcaraz, widely-regarded as Nadal's Grand Slam heir apparent, claimed
a season-leading 47th win despite breaking one of his shoes.

The 19-year-old third seed defeated Jenson Brooksby of the United States 6-3,
6-3, 6-3 on the back of 46 winners.

Alcaraz, a quarter-finalist in 2021, managed to break one of his tennis shoes
as he slid to reach a ball mid-match.

"It's the third time that I have done this. As you can see, I do a lot of
sliding," he said.

Alcaraz next faces 2014 champion Marin Cilic who fired 26 aces and 74 winners
in total past Britain's Dan Evans in a 7-6 (13/11), 6-7 (3/7), 6-2, 7-5 win.

British seventh seed Cameron Norrie made the fourth round for the first time
with a comfortable 7-5, 6-4, 6-1 win over Danish teenager Holger Rune.

He next faces Russian ninth seed Andrey Rublev who needed five match points
to see off Canada's Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 2-6, 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 7-6 (10/7).

World number one Swiatek downed unseeded Lauren Davis 6-3, 6-4.

Swiatek came back from 1-4 down in the second set to reel off five successive
games against the American who called a medical time out in the first set to
have her blood pressure taken.

The 21-year-old Pole will face Wimbledon quarter-finalist Jule Niemeier of
Germany for a place in the last eight.

Swiatek has now won three matches in a row for the first time since capturing
her second French Open in June.

"It's not like I lost confidence or something. I still know anything can
happen on these tournaments," she said.

Petra Kvitova defeated ninth-seeded Garbine Muguruza after saving two match
points.

Kvitova came through 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (12/10) and will take on Jessica Pegula of
the United States for a quarter-final place.

Two-time Wimbledon champion Kvitova said she had drawn inspiration from
Serena Williams when the American legend saved five match points before
eventually being eliminated on Friday.

"I watched Serena and it was amazing how she was saving match points, so I
tried to do the same today," said two-time US Open quarter-finalist Kvitova
who next faces three-time runner-up Victoria Azarenka.

Muguruza's defeat, her sixth in seven meetings against the Czech, left only
four of the top 10 women's seeds in the tournament.

Sixth seed Aryna Sabalenka, who made the semi-finals in 2021, brushed aside
French qualifier Clara Burel, 6-0, 6-2 in just 68 minutes.

Pegula, the eighth seed, ended the run of Chinese qualifier Yuan Yue, 6-2, 6-
7 (6/8), 6-0.

Azarenka eased past Petra Martic 6-3, 6-0 to set up a last-16 clash with 2016
finalist Karolina Pliskova who downed Olympic champion Belinda Bencic 5-7, 6-
4, 6-3.