Millman’s 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (7/3) triumph scuppered a blockbuster last-four meeting between Federer and two-time US Open champion Djokovic, who had advanced with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Joao Sousa.

But Federer suffered his earliest US Open exit since he fell in straight sets to Tommy Robredo in the fourth round in 2013.

It was also 20-time major winner Federer’s first loss against a player outside the top 50 in 41 meetings at the US Open.

“I’m probably in a little bit of disbelief,” Millman, 29, said after three hours and 35 minutes in the cauldron of Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“I have so much respect for Roger and everything he’s done for the game. He’s been a hero of mine.”

Federer had set points in both the second and third sets, but troubles with his serve infected his entire game and 77 unforced errors doomed the 20-time Grand Slam champion in the face of a determined attack from Millman.

“It was very hot,” said Federer, whose shirt and shorts were wringing wet with sweat most of the night.

“I felt I couldn’t get any air and I was sweating more and more and became more and more uncomfortable.

“John dealt with it better,” Federer added. “He’s from Brisbane, one of the most humid places in the world!”

Millman said he was feeling the nerves of his first Grand Slam fourth round match as he surrendered the first set with a single break of serve.

“I felt like a bit of a deer in the headlights to begin with,” said Millman, whose career has been slowed by a string of injuries and three surgeries.

“The feet weren’t moving. Roger had it on a string, he was manipulating me around the court.”

Although Federer broke first on the way to a 5-3 lead in the second, Millman won the last four games, breaking Federer twice as Federer wasted two set points in the 10th game.

Federer upped his game in a tight third set, and had the first chance to claim the set at 6-5 in the tiebreaker. He netted a service return, and Millman converted his second set point to seize a two sets to one lead.

When the Swiss great broke for a 4-2 lead in the fourth the Ashe fans were on their feet.

But he gave the break back in the next game after slamming an overhead into the bottom of the net on game point.

They went to the tiebreaker, where two of Federer’s 10 double faults, followed by a backhand into the net and a wayward forehand gave Millman a 6-1 lead.

Federer, looking all of his 37 years, clawed his way through two match points before slapping yet another forehand wide as Millman celebrated.

“Today he was definitely not at his best,” Millman said. “But I’ll take it.”

And he’ll face another hero in Djokovic for a place in the semi-finals, trying to become the first Australian man to win a Grand Slam since Lleyton Hewitt won Wimbledon in 2002.

“Last time I played him I got three games at Queens,” Millman said. “Let’s hope I get a few more.”

 – Try to survive –

Djokovic, who ended a 54-week title drought with his 13th Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, said he was relieved to get past 68th-ranked Sousa in straight sets, the searing afternoon heat seeming more of a problem than his Portuguese opponent.

“You can’t do anything but try to be tough and survive, find a way to win,” Djokovic said.

Kei Nishikori, runner-up in 2014, was also pleased to get through in three sets in blazing sunshine on Louis Armstrong Stadium.

After racing through the first two sets against Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber he dropped his serve while serving for the match at 5-4 in the third, but managed to prevail 6-3, 6-2, 7-5.

Nishikori will fight for a semi-final berth against Croatian Marin Cilic, who beat him in the 2014 final.

Seventh-seeded Cilic, who needed eight match points in a five-set marathon against Australian teenager Alex de Minaur spilled into Sunday morning survived some tense moments to get past 10th-ranked Belgian David Goffin 7-6 (8/6), 6-2, 6-4.

Goffin served for the first set at 5-4 before Cilic went on to win the tiebreaker, sealing it on his third match point.

“I was thinking one match point, second match point — I hope it’s not going to the eighth one,” Cilic said,

Messi has dominated the award along with Ronaldo over the past decade, but the Barcelona star has been omitted from the top three for the first time since 2006.

A five-time winner of the award, Messi has also finished second in the voting for each of Ronaldo’s five previous wins in 2008, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017.

Ronaldo ended a nine-year stay at Real Madrid on a high with a fourth Champions League in five years before joining Italian giants Juventus in July.

Yet, that might not even be enough for the Portuguese to edge ahead in his battle for supremacy with Messi by adding his sixth crown when the winners are announced on September 24.

End to Messi-Ronaldo dominance?

Ronaldo’s former Real Madrid team-mate Luka Modric is best-placed to become the first new name to win the award for 10 years after a superb season for club and country.

As well as his influential displays in Real’s Champions League triumph, the Croatia midfielder won the Golden Ball for the best player at the tournament as Croatia reached their first World Cup final, finishing as runners-up to France.

“I really hope Modric will win because I think what he did in the World Cup was really special,” said legendary former Manchester United and Denmark goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel in his role as a FIFA ambassador on Monday.

“He’s this quiet guy we know from Real Madrid, but when we saw him in the World Cup he became a majestic leader. He was wearing the captain’s armband, leading from the front, first guy to put a tackle in, and we saw a side of Luka Modric I hadn’t seen before.”

Salah’s 44 goals in an incredible debut season for Liverpool saw him edge out Messi and French World Cup stars Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann for a place in the top three.

The Egyptian led Liverpool to the Champions League final before cruelly suffering an injury early on in Kiev against Madrid that also limited his participation at the World Cup.

France may not have any runners for the best player award but two Frenchmen lead the finalists for the best coach as World Cup-winning manager Didier Deschamps and former Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane are joined by Croatia’s Zlatko Dalic.

Deschamps became just the third man to win the World Cup as a player and coach with victory over Dalic’s Croatia in Russia, while Zidane led Real to a third consecutive Champions League win in May before stepping down.

The best goalkeeper prize is to be contested by Tottenham and France’s Hugo Lloris, Denmark’s Kasper Schmeichel, son of Peter, and Belgium’s Thibaut Courtois, whose World Cup heroics earned him a move to Real Madrid.

Ronaldo and Messi both feature among the 10 nominees for the Puskas Award for best goal of the year, along with Gareth Bale’s sensational overhead kick in the Champions League final.

Lyon’s Norwegian striker Ada Hegerberg and German midfielder Dzsenifer Marozsan are joined by Brazilian five-time winner Marta in the running for the best women’s player after winning the Champions League with the French giants.

Reynold Pedros of Lyon, Japan boss Asako Takakura and Netherlands coach Sarina Wiegman are in the running for best women’s coach.

Djokovic, who ended a 54-week title drought with his 13th Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, will play the winner of a night match between five-time US Open champion Federer and John Millman.

Should Federer get through against the 55th-ranked Australian, he’ll set up his earliest Grand Slam meeting with Djokovic since 2007, when Federer beat Djokovic to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals.

Djokovic, whose 6-6 record against Federer at Flushing Meadows includes victories over the Swiss great in the 2011 and 2015 finals, said he was relieved to get past 68th-ranked Sousa in straight sets as temperatures soared again.

“Very happy to get this one done in straight sets,” said Djokovic, who left the court for a medical evaluation early in the third set but returned to wrap things up in exactly two hours.

Sousa, who got past 12th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta and No. 17 Luca Pouille to become the first Portugese man to reach a Grand Slam last 16, was irked by the chair umpire’s refusal to allow a line call challenge in the seventh game of the final set.

Djokovic broke him at love in the next game and served out the match without fuss.

“It was much more difficult than the score indicated,” Djokovic said. “Credit to Joao — he brought a lot of intensity to the court.”

Kei Nishikori, runner-up in 2014, was also pleased to get through in three sets in blazing sunshine on Louis Armstrong Stadium.

After racing through the first two sets against Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber he dropped his serve while serving for the match at 5-4 in the third, but managed to prevail 6-3, 6-2, 7-5.

“Man, really lucky to finish in three sets,” Nishikori said. “It was very hot on the court even though it doesn’t look too hot it’s hit me.”

Nishikori could end up fighting for a semi-final berth against Croatian Marin Cilic, who beat him in the 2014 final.

That remains Nishikori’s best Grand Slam showing. After reaching a career-high fourth in the world in 2015 he slid down the rankings as a wrist injury sidelined him for six months, keeping him out of last year’s US Open and eventually requiring surgery.

Seventh-seeded Cilic, who survived a five-set marathon against Australian teenager Alex de Minaur that went into the early hours of Sunday morning, faced 10th-ranked Belgian David Goffin later Monday.

Cilic is trying to reach the US Open quarter-finals for the fifth time, but he has lost 11 of his last 12 matches against top 10 opponents.

 Yannapon, who became the first Thai to win a World Bowling Tour title last year, and Annop, winner of the Busan Cup in May, returned home empty-handed from the Asiad.

The Thai Ten Pin Bowling Association failed to grab a single medal after winning three, including the singles gold by Yannapon at the 2014 Asiad in Incheon.

“I will try my best to defend my title,” said the 34-year-old Yannapon from Nakhon Pathom, asilver medallist in the 2002 Games in Busan.

“I practised so hard in the Asian Games but things just didn’t go my way.”

Annop, 33, was the only Thai man to qualify for the Masters event in Jakarta last week where he finished at 10th. He has also sets his sights on redeeming himself on home soil.

“My score wasn’t so bad in the Asian Games. I just didn’t do well during the first block but by the time I did better in the second block, it was too hard to catch up with the leaders,” said Annop who aims at reaching the last eight in the World Bowling Tour Thailand.

He finished sixth 12 months ago. He and Yannaphon left for Sweden last night for another World Tour event.

The star-studded event features the world top three players in the men’s division: No 1 Jason Belmonte of Australia, No 2 Jesper Svensson of Sweden and No 3 Marshall Kent of the US.

The women’s field is led by world No 1 Daniella McEwan of the US, No 2 Diana Zavjalova of Latvia, and No 3 Anggie Ramirez of Colombia.

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United manager Mourinho, whose name was chanted throughout the afternoon by the 2,400 travelling supporters, also claimed Marcus Rashford had been naive in being shown a straight red card, just 10 minutes after appearing as a 60th minute substitute, following an altercation with Phil Bardsley.

By that stage, United were comfortably in front thanks to two goals from Romelu Lukaku and could even afford the luxury of a missed Paul Pogba penalty, won by Rashford following a foul by Ben Mee, and saved well by Joe Hart.

But, given the delicate political situation at Old Trafford currently, the afternoon was as notable for events off the field as on them.

Before kick-off, supporters had paid for a small plane to fly over the ground, towing a banner that read: “Ed Woodward, a specialist in failure”.

The accusation – one which Mourinho famously directed at former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger when he himself was in charge of Chelsea – referenced the executive vice chairman’s supposed inability to deliver the United manager his desired transfer targets this summer.

But while Mourinho praised the United fans, who supported their players after the shock 3-0 home defeat to Tottenham on Monday, he also offered a hint of support for Woodward.

“In the match I’m not looking at the sky, unless I’m asking for the guy to give me help!” joked Mourinho.

“I didn’t see the plane but Ed Woodward won this afternoon, 2-0.

“But I think we started winning this match because of Old Trafford, after Spurs. We lost at home, if the fans had reacted bad the team loses confidence, the week is not a good week, the team feels pressure.

“But we lost at home and the fans were amazing to the team. The team understood the direction was good and it was not a sad week, it was a very good week at work and we started the way you saw.”

– Dispute –

Despite the pre-match protest, and supporters clearly siding with their manager in any dispute between him and Woodward, the afternoon should have been a routine one after Lukaku scored twice in the first half.

After 26 minutes he rose powerfully between two defenders to head in an Alexis Sanchez cross before he reacted sharply following a deflected Jesse Lingard shot and swept the ball in from six yards.

Mourinho claimed that Pogba will remain United’s penalty taker, despite his miss, should he wish to remain on duty.

But what had been an unqualified United success at Turf Moor to that point suffered slightly when Rashford, who had been cynically fouled by Bardsley, head-butted his assailant.

“I didn’t see it, the only thing I can say is that is probably the experience of Bardsley, 20 years in football, against the impulse and naivety of a guy who has been in top football for three years but is still a young head,” said Mourinho.

“Harsh? I don’t know. You could give yellows for both and keep going, maybe.”

The closing stages should have seen Lukaku claim a hat-trick, as he twice missed one-on-ones when clean through on Hart, but not even those errors could reduce Mourinho’s appreciation for his efforts.

“He played very well for us, scored two important goals,” said Mourinho.

“He could have scored more but maybe he was a bit tired, playing with 10 men.

“He should be leaving here with a hat-trick, easily. But the important thing is he is back to goals and we’re back to victories.”

World number one Nadal saw off a battling Nikoloz Basilashvili, the first Georgian in a fourth round in New York, 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 6-4.

“It’s a big victory for me,” said the 32-year-old Nadal, the champion in 2010, 2013 and 2017.

“A lot of credit to him. He was hitting the ball very strong and when I thought I was in control of the points, he always came back with strong shots.”

However, it was world number 37 Basilashvili’s strength which proved his undoing.

His 56 winners were erased by 59 unforced errors which in turn were three times as many committed by Nadal.

The Spanish star cruised into a two-set lead on Sunday, seemingly fully recovered from the trauma of fighting back from a set and break down to Russia’s Karen Khachanov on Friday.

But Basilashvili stunned Nadal in the third set tiebreak and even retrieved a break for 3-3 in the fourth set before Nadal’s greater composure paid off.

Next up for Nadal is Thiem who he defeated in the Roland Garros final in June when he captured an 11th French Open.

Thiem, who beat Nadal on clay in Madrid in the run-up to Paris, booked his place in the US Open quarter-finals for the first time with a 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (7/2) win over 2017 runner-up Kevin Anderson.

The ninth-seeded Austrian’s three other appearances in the last-eight of a Slam have all been on the clay of Roland Garros in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Nadal leads their head-to-head 7-3 with all of their matches coming on clay courts.

“Thiem is a great opponent, he has the big serve and he had a big win today against Kevin,” said Nadal who has made the last-eight of every Slam in the same year for the first time since 2011.

Thiem has unfinished business at the US Open.

Last year, he had two match points against Juan Martin del Potro in the fourth round but fell to the Argentine in five sets.

“It’s a dream coming true,” said Thiem.

“I was really close last year, I couldn’t close it out.”

Thiem’s progress to the last-eight comes despite choosing to play European clay court events after Wimbledon before then losing his only summer hard court outing in Cincinnati to Stefanos Tsitsipas.

He is the first Austrian in the last-eight at the US Open since Thomas Muster in 1996.

On Sunday, he never faced a break point and hit 42 winners.

“Against Rafa, I’ve had three very nice experiences and seven horrible experiences,” said 24-year-old Thiem.

“But I’m really looking forward to play him on hard court for the first time.

“On clay, I think it’s one of the biggest challenges in sports to beat this guy. I hope that it’s a little bit more comfortable on hard court, but I’m not sure.”

Anderson went into Sunday’s match with Thiem boasting a 6-1 record with his only loss against the Austrian on clay in Madrid this year.

His wins had all been on hard courts, including the US Open third round in 2015 in straight sets.

“I definitely felt he played a great match. He made life pretty difficult for me. I thought he defended amazingly,” said Wimbledon runner-up Anderson.

Later Sunday, 2009 champion and Argentine third seed Del Potro will look to make the quarter-finals for the sixth time when he faces Croatia’s Borna Coric under the Arthur Ashe lights.

Coric, 21, is playing in the fourth round at a Slam for the first time.

The day’s other last-16 duel sees US 11th seed John Isner tackle fellow big-server Milos Raonic, the 25th seeded Canadian.

Isner was a quarter-finalist in 2011 while Ranoic has yet to make the last eight.

Williams, the 23-time Grand Slam champion seeking a first major since a 2017 Australian Open title won when she was pregnant with her daughter Olympia, will take on Karolina Pliskova for a semi-final spot after the eighth-seeded Czech beat Australian Ashleigh Barty 6-4, 6-4.

Williams looked set for a romp when she seized the first set from Kanepi in just 18 minutes.

But the hard-hitting Estonian, who took out world number one Simona Halep in the first round, settled down in the second, boosted by an opening break as she took a 2-0 lead.

After a Williams double fault gave Kanepi a break for a 5-2 Williams answered by winning the next two games.

But she couldn’t convert two break chances in the 10th, and after Williams saved two set points Kanepi knotted the match with a service winner on her third set point.

“It wasn’t an easy match at all,” said Williams, who let out a roar after ripping a backhand cross court to hold serve in the oepning game of the third set.

“She’s had a lot of big wins in her career. I was just happy to get through it to be honest.”

Williams took control of the final set with a break for a 2-0 lead, her 18 aces and 47 total winners proving enough in the end to put her through.

Williams heads into the second week at Flushing Meadows tracking two milestones: A seventh US Open title would see her break out of a tie with Chris Evert for the Open Era record and also equal Australian Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 major titles.

She can also avoid her first year since 2011 without a Grand Slam title. She missed her Australian Open title defense, not returning to the tour until March.

She withdrew prior to a fourth-round meeting with Maria Sharapova at the French Open with a shoulder injury before a scintillating run to the Wimbledon final ended with a runner-up finish to Angelique Kerber.

The two-time Asian Tour winner and world No 151 finished on 25 under-par (259), seven shots ahead of Udorn, to grab the winner’s cheque for Bt300,000.

“I have played a few co-sanctioned ADT events in Thailand and I knew the All-Thailand Tour was a good one,” said Catlin, who won two Asian Tour this year – the Asia-Pacific in China in May and the Sarawak Championship in Malaysia in July. “As I didn’t have any other events this week, it suited my schedule.”

Despite having a five-shot advantage heading into the final round, Catlin never underestimated the challenged posed by Udorn, an Order of Merit winner on the All-Thailand Tour in 2016.

“I definitely got nervous as I knew it was not going to be easy. Udorn is a good player who would put up a fight. I had to do my best and I’m glad I made it,” added the American, the first foreigner to win an All-Thailand Tour title since South Korean Baek Seuk-Hyun at the Singha Championship in 2013.

Udorn took home prizemoney of Bt185,000, while rising star Atiruj Winaicharoenchai and Pannakorn Uthaipas shared third place three strokes further back on 269.