Cape Town - Jo-Wilfried Tsonga eased into the second week of the US Open following his straight set win over Kevin Anderson on Friday.
The ninth seed faced a battle in the third set but would emerge the victor 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) under the hot New York sun.
Anderson - who has struggled through several injuries this season - was on the back foot early but managed to save four break points in his opening service game.
The pressure told though, as the Frenchman would take a 4-2 on his way to wrapping up the set. One break of serve on the second was enough to take a 2-0 lead.
A mammoth third set saw Anderson save five more break points and he even had a chance to snatch the set away from Tsonga when he earned a break point at 5-4, but it wasn't to be for the tall South African.
In the ensuing tiebreaker, Tsonga took the early lead and never looked back, marching on to his fifth fourth round appearance at the US Open.
Results from the fifth day of the 2016 US Open tennis championships at Flushing Meadows on Friday (x denotes seeded player):
Men
Third round
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA x9) bt Kevin Anderson (RSA x23) 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4)
Jack Sock (USA x26) bt Marin Cilic (CRO x7) 6-4, 6-3, 6-3
Women
Third round
Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) bt Monica Niculescu (ROM) 6-3, 6-1
Johanna Konta (GBR x13) bt Belinda Bencic (SUI x24) 6-2, 6-1
Anastasija Sevastova (LAT) bt Kateryna Bondarenko (UKR) 6-4, 6-1
Roberta Vinci (ITA x7) bt Carina Witthoeft (GER) 6-0, 5-7, 6-3
Lesia Tsurenko (UKR) bt Dominika Cibulkova (SVK x12) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4