NEW YORK — Roger Federer won in straight sets for the first time in this year’s US Open, downing Daniel Evans 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 to advance to the round of 16, and No. 7 seed Kei Nishikori became the latest men’s seed to fall at Flushing Meadows.
Nishikori, a 2014 finalist at the US Open, lost to 38th-ranked Alex De Minaur 6-2, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 in the third round, leaving less than half of the top 12 men still in action. De Minaur, a 20-year-old Australian who has won two tour events this year, including last month’s hard-court tuneup in Atlanta, outlasted Nishikori from the baseline and took advantage of his opponent’s 60 unforced errors.
Other seeds to lose earlier in the tournament included No. 4 Dominic Thiem, No. 8 Stefanos Tsitsipas, No. 9 Karen Khachanov and No. 10 Roberto Bautista Agut.
Federer, who struggled early in his two previous matches, had no such trouble with Evans on Friday.
“At the end of the day, I think what matters the most for me is that I am in the third round, after all, after those two sort of slow starts,” Federer said. “Give myself another opportunity to do better, and I did.”
The No. 3 seed and five-time champion at Flushing Meadows will make his 18th appearance in the round of 16 at the US Open, breaking a tie with Jimmy Connors for the most among men in the Open era. Federer, 38, is also the oldest man to reach the third round since a 39-year-old Connors made it into the semifinals as a wild card in 1991.
On Friday, Federer hit 48 winners to Evans’ seven and had a 10-0 advantage in aces while winning the match in just 1 hour, 20 minutes.
Federer had dropped the opening set in his first two matches for the first time in his 19 US Open appearances. No man has done that and gone on to win the tournament, but the No. 3 seed isn’t one to worry about history.
Nor is he superstitious, which is why he didn’t care when asked if it was OK if his family and support staff moved from their usual spot in the stadium to another, where they could find more shade. Supporters of Evans were on the sunny side.
“Brits maybe need a little bit of sun sometimes,” Federer joked in his on-court interview.
But Federer, a 20-time Grand Slam champion and one of the most popular players in the sport, wasn’t in a joking mood during his news conference, after a suggestion that he asked to play the first match of the day on Arthur Ashe Stadium after Evans had to play Thursday afternoon because his second-round match was pushed back a day by Wednesday’s rain.
Federer agreed that it was a disadvantage for Evans to play two days in a row while he had an extra day off, but grew angry when asked if he had lobbied to play early.
“I’m sick and tired of it, that apparently I call the shots,” Federer said. “The tournament and the TV stations do.”
Evans, while praising Federer’s performance, was disappointed in his schedule after playing four sets Thursday to upset No. 25 Lucas Pouille.
“It would have been nice to be second or a night match,” he said. “I’m not sure who plays Novak [Djokovic], but, you know, someone’s going to get the short straw and it was me.”
The night match should benefit Djokovic, who was bothered a left shoulder injury that required treatment during his second-round match. The defending champion hoped to be feeling better by the time he faced Denis Kudla on Friday night.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.