No. 1 Serena Williams easily advanced to the fourth round of the 2013 U.S. Open with a straight-set win Friday night over Yaroslava Shvedova. Williams dispatched Shvedova, 6-3, 6-1, and will next face No. 15 Sloane Stephens in the fourth round.
In other late action, men's No. 6 seed Juan Martin del Potro was upset at the hands of unseeded Lleyton Hewitt. It was a long match, with Hewitt notching the five-set win, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-1.
Hewitt managed to cleanly take the first set, and had a big advantage in the second set before del Potro battled back. Del Potro took the second set 7-5, and easily took the third set, 6-3. But things got complicated again in the fourth set, where Hewitt battled to a tiebreak and an eventual win. In the fifth set, it was all Hewitt, downing del Potro 6-1.
No. 9 Stanislas Wawrinka was victorious on Friday as well, besting Ivo Karlovic, 7-5, 7-6(8), 6-4. Beating Karlovic is always a challenge, given that he's a veritable giant and has a huge serve. You have to play a technically sound game against someone like Karlovic, and Wawrinka managed that, with 45 winners and only 20 unforced errors. Wawrinka will face Marcos Baghdatis in the third round on Sunday.
Plenty of top seeds advanced earlier on Friday, including men's No. 1 Novak Djokovic and women's No. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska. Djokovic took down Benjamin Becker, while Radwanska bested Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
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