Fourth seed Serena Williams thrashed Ekaterina Makarova in straight sets to move into the fourth round of the US Open tonight – and gain revenge for her Australian Open elimination.

Top seed Novak Djokovic barely had to break sweat to make it through the second round of the US Open as Irishman Conor Niland retired through illness while trailing 6-0 5-1 at the Arthur Ashe stadium.

Second seed Kim Clijsters is looking forward to a US Open semi-final against Venus Williams but she will have to improve on an error-strewn display in the last eight against Sam Stosur.

Lleyton Hewitt surged into his first Grand Slam final tonight when he demolished the challenge of Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

World number one Gustavo Kuerten became tennis’s great escapologist early this morning to scrape through an extraordinary US Open third round match with Max Mirnyi.