Serena Williams easily won her eagerly-awaited clash with Sloane Stephens at the US Open as normal service resumed at the last grand slam of the year.

Williams was one of four US Open champions that won on Sunday, sending a clear message to the next generation of rising stars that they will have to wait their turn.

The 31-year-old avenged her loss to Stephens at the Australian Open with an emphatic 6-4 6-1 victory to keep her title defence on course.

“It’s definitely difficult, especially playing people that you like, that you always want to see do well,” Williams said.

“But you have to go out there and kind of put that to the side and realise, I want to do well myself and take every point as it comes.”

Defending men’s champion Andy Murray and world number one Novak Djokovic also won in straight sets, while 2001 winner Lleyton Hewitt turned back the clock to reach the fourth round for the first time since 2006.

Murray, playing in the middle of a hot and steamy day, needed less than two hours to see off Germany’s Florian Mayer 7-6 6-2 6-2 and advance to the fourth round.

Djokovic was even more ruthless in his centre court night match against Portugal’s Joao Sousa, cruising to a 6-0 6-2 6-2 win, while 32-year-old Hewitt wore down Russia’s Evgeny Donskoy 6-3 7-6 3-6 6-1.

“Obviously when you’ve been to the top you want to keep playing,” said Hewitt, who stunned sixth seed Juan Martin del Potro in the previous round.

“The reason you’re playing is for the majors, and for me, Davis Cup as well. That’s the reason I’m still playing.”

The biggest surprise on a day when most results went as expected was the defeat of women’s third seed Agnieszka Radwanska.

The Pole, who had made it to the quarter-finals or better at the three other grand slams this year, crumbled to a 6-4 6-4 defeat by Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova after she had won the first four games of the match.

Makarova will play China’s Li Na after Asia’s top player accounted for Jelena Jankovic 6-3 6-0.

Murray’s opponent in the fourth round will be Denis Istomin, who beat Andreas Seppi 6-3 6-4 2-6 3-6 6-1, with Tomas Berdych looming in the quarter-finals.

Berdych, seeded fifth, made the semi-finals at last year’s US Open and has been in great form at Flushing Meadows this week, reaching the last 16 without dropping a set.

The Czech dispatched Julien Benneteau, of France, 6-0 6-3 6-2 to set up a fourth-round clash with Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka, who defeated Marcos Baghdatis, of Cyprus, 6-3 6-2 6-7 7-6.

Bob and Mike Bryan gave America’s men some cheer when they stayed on course to achieve a rare calendar-year grand slam in doubles after coming back to beat Canadians Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil 6-7 7-5 6-2.

The Bryan brothers have already won each of the last four grand slam doubles titles, starting with last year’s US Open, but are bidding to claim all four in the same calendar year.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.