Marin Cilic survives scare to keep US Open defence on track

The laboured win sent Cilic into the fourth round with a 6-7(5) 7-6(1) 6-3 6-7(3) 6-1 score on Friday.

Cilic stepped onto the Grandstand court having won 16 straight sets at Flushing Meadows but that string quickly came to an end when the 56th-ranked Kukushkin took the opening set in a tiebreak in what was the start of a long and harrowing afternoon for the defending champion.

After crashing out in the first or second round of his last 16 tournaments, Kukushkin appeared determined to maintain an extended grand slam run following a second-round upset of 17th seed Grigor Dimitrov.

For four sets, the 27-year-old from Kazakhstan gave Cilic all he could handle and more but in the fifth he simply ran out of steam as the Croat surged ahead 5-0 before closing out the marathon encounter with his 27th ace.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is also through - his third round encounter was distinctly more comfortable after the Frenchman saw off Sergiy Stakhovsky in three sets, 6-3 7-5 6-2.

Benoit Paire also only needed the three sets to eliminate Tommy Robredo, taking full control after a hard-fought opening set required a tie-break to win 7-6 6-1 6-1.