• US Open - Men's Draw

Nadal powers past Simon in New York

Rafael Nadal was too good for Gilles Simon © Getty Images

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Rafael Nadal looked like a man fiercely determined to end Roger Federer's spell of dominance at the US Open as he ruthlessly disposed of Gilles Simon's challenge in the third round, winning 6-4 6-4 6-2.

While Nadal is yet to progress past the semi-final at Flushing Meadows, his great Swiss rival has appeared in each of the last six finals at the tournament - winning five of them.

But there has been the sense this year that the balance of power is tilting towards Nadal - he has won two of the three Grand Slams in 2010 - and weight was added to that theory as the Spaniard outclassed Simon.

It was hard to fault Nadal's performance - he did not concede a break point in the match as he ironed out the flaws in his serve that have previously harmed him at the US Open, while he was clinical when offered the opportunity to steal a break of serve.

"Every day it seems I am playing a little bit better so that's very important for my confidence, the serve is working probably better than ever," Nadal said. "Very important victory for me, Simon is always a difficult player."

Nadal's next opponent, Feliciano Lopez, will have freshness on his side if nothing else when they meet in the fourth round after third-round rival Sergiy Stakhovsky retired hurt with the score at 6-3 4-0.

David Nalbandian was one of the players the top seeds were desperate to avoid after his impressive recent form - he won 22 of 27 matches coming into the tournament - but Fernando Verdasco was never seriously troubled by the Argentinian on his way to a 6-2 3-6 6-3 6-2 triumph.

Dark horse and tenth seed David Ferrer prowled into a fourth round meeting with Verdasco with a straight sets win over fellow Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver.

Sam Querrey delighted the home crowd - and set up a fourth-round clash against Stanislas Wawrinka - by powering 19 aces in his 6-3 6-4 6-4 defeat of Nicolas Almagro.

But the massive centre court night crowd were left disappointed as John Isner failed to fire in his 6-4 6-7 7-6 6-4 loss to Mikhail Youzhny. Isner seemed to start off cold and he was down a set and two breaks before his immense serve got going. He battled back to level up the second set and rode the home support for all it was worth but Youzhny showed experience and composure to outlast the hot streak and wrap up the win.

Tommy Robredo will meet Youzhny after Michael Llodra pulled out of their match in the fourth set.

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