Cilic first in last eight

Defending champion Marin Cilic reached the US Open quarter-finals for the fourth time on Sunday with a 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7/2) 6-1 win over France's Jeremy Chardy.

Cilic, the Croatian ninth seed, took his record to New York to 11 successive wins after capturing his maiden Grand Slam title in the city last year.

But the 26-year-old had to overcome an injury scare in the second set to stay alive in the tournament when he rolled his right ankle.

"I twisted my ankle in the second set but I tried not to let it affect my movement," he said.

"In the first few games of the third set, I was conscious of it but after that I didn't have trouble with it."

Cilic fired 23 aces and 52 winners in his win over Chardy, one of four Frenchmen in the last-16.

Four of those aces came in the third set tiebreak.

"I took the joker from Goran in the tiebreak," he said, explaining his inspiration from coach and big-hitting former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic.

He will face another French player in the last eight, 19th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who reached his second US Open quarter-final with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 win over compatriot Benoit Paire.

The 30-year-old Tsonga did not face a single break point against Paire and has now held all 56 service games at the tournament.

Andy Murray coasted into the US Open fourth round Saturday as Canadian poster girl Eugenie Bouchard suffered a potentially tournament-ending head injury in a freak fall.

Murray, seeded three and the New York champion in 2012, brushed aside Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 for his 40th career win at the US Open.

Two-time runner-up Victoria Azarenka, the 20th seed, triumphed over 11th-seeded German Angelique Kerber in an Arthur Ashe Stadium thriller lasting almost three hours. Azarenka won 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 on a sixth match point having trailed 2-5 in the first set.

Both players saved a combined 26 break points before the Belarusian prevailed to set-up a last-16 clash with America's Varvara Lepchenko.

Fifth seed Stan Wawrinka, the French Open champion, made the last 16 with a 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 win over Belgian world number 107 Rubens Bemmelmans.

Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych reached the last 16 by beating Spain's Guillermo García-Lopez 6-7 (2/7), 7-6 (9/7), 6-3, 6-3.

Romanian second seed Simona Halep reached the last 16 with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Shelby Rogers, while Petra Kvitova eased past Anna Karolína Schmiedlova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-1.

Last 16 line-up
Novak Djokovic (SRB x1) v Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP x23)
Feliciano Lopez (ESP x18) v Fabio Fognini (ITA x32)
Stan Wawrinka (SUI x5) v Donald Young (USA)
Kevin Anderson (RSA x15) v Andy Murray (GBR x3)
Tomas Berdych (CZE x6) v Richard Gasquet (FRA x12)
John Isner (USA x13) v Roger Federer (SUI x2)