Another one! Serena basks in grand slam milestone

“Wow. That’s pretty awesome and honestly what a better place to do it than here, where it all started”, Williams told an adoring Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd.

“Looking at it now, I can say that it definitely feels like a Wonder Woman or Superwoman. So I know everything can happen and I can play really good and I can beat those guys”, Marchenko said, although he’s well aware of the arsenal of “unbelievable shots and unbelievable attacks” the immensely talented but mercurial Kyrgios can unleash.

It marked the third time the Spaniard has reached the fourth round or better at Flushing Meadows. “Something I didn’t even know about until Wimbledon. I’m really proud that I could win it and come back from 3-1 down in the third set”. “I would like to take one more step, several more steps”.

“I lost the match because I made the wrong decision on the smash”, Evans said of the overhead he failed to put away late in the fourth-set tiebreaker. That’s because 19-year-old qualifier Jared Donaldson’s run ended with a straight-set loss to 37-year-old Ivo Karlovic, the oldest man to reach the fourth round in NY since Jimmy Connors was 39 in 1991.

Fifth-seeded Simona Halep fought off Timea Babos after trailing 1-3 in the third set, coming back for a 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 to advance to the fourth round.

Men’s eighth seed Dominic Thiem of Austria also enjoyed a birthday win, downing Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 on the day he turned 23.

Fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland overcame France’s Caroline Garcia 6-2 6-3 and will face either American Varvara Lepchenko or Ana Konjuh of Croatia next.

He became the oldest first-time champion by winning at Kitzbuehel, and adding two semi-finals and a quarter-final to his credit.

Wawrinka, a two-time Grand Slam victor and twice a semi-finalist in NY, had the closest call, saving a match point in a 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (10/8), 6-2 victory over Britain’s Dan Evans.

It was a straightforward triumph for Williams, who held serve throughout both sets to progress through 6-2 6-1 and set up a last-16 tie with Yaroslava Shvedova. White, rather than the black of the night gear, with sleeves to match, Williams described it as a super-hero, which rather befits her tennis.

“It’s always good”, Williams said casually, “to have BeyoncE and Jay in the box”.

The hard-hitting Czech, who shocked Angelique Kerber in the final of the US Open tuenup in Cincinnati, defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2.

“What she does well and what you can’t really see on the screen is that she’s mixing her tempo”, Larsson said of her groundstrokes.

After the third round, Serena is 36-5 for 2016, but played only three matches (at the Olympics) between Wimbledon and the US Open, compared to 11 in three tournaments past year with a 51-2 record.

Halep will play the No. 11 seed Carla Suárez Navarro in the fourth round.