Roger Federer has set up a quarter-final clash with Robin Soderling after beating Jurgen Melzer 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 at the US Open on Monday.

The world No.2 was too strong for the 13th-seeded Melzer and despite some nervous moments in the second set tie-breaker, he powered through to a comfortable win.

The Swiss maestro was not at his absolute best, but his 41 winners helped him secure the win in just over two hours against his gritty Austrian opponent.

Earlier, Novak Djokovic breezed past Mardy Fish to book his quarter-final spot.

The No.3-seeded Serbian had little trouble progressing, brushing Fish aside 6-3 6-4 6-1 to set up a date with France's Gael Monfils.

The support of his home crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium did little to help American Fish, who trailed 30-13 in the winners count and landed just 55 percent of his first serves.

Djokovic won the final set in just 28 minutes, but should face a far tougher prospect in the form of Monfils in the quarter-finals.

Monfils had his own straight-sets win to progress, over countryman Richard Gasquet.

The 17th seed won 6-4 7-5 7-5 over Gasquet in two hours and 35 minutes to achieve his best-ever result at Flushing Meadows.

Gasquet, ranked 38th in the world, was full of confidence heading into the match, having already upset sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko in the second round.

But his countryman proved to be a much tougher prospect, with Monfils grabbing an early break in the first set and holding out to take the first set 6-4.

Monfils again broke early in the second set, but this time Gasquet was able to find a way to nullify his serve and break back to level the set at 3-3.

The two Frenchmen were putting on a high-quality show for the crowd at Flushing Meadows, but eventually it was Monfils who took the decisive break in the 11th game before holding serve to take a two-sets-to-love lead.

Gasquet had to pull something out of the bag if he wanted to reach the quarter finals for the first time at the US Open and he did just that in the sixth game, breaking serve and then holding his own to take a 5-2 lead.

Monfils battled to hold his own serve again but eventually did give Gasquet a chance to serve for the set at 5-3.

But the latter's confidence seemed to evaporate as a double fault then an error at the net gave Monfils two break points, which he duly converted.

Gasquet wasn't done yet and earned two set points on Monfils' serve the very next game, only for the world No. 19 to hit a brilliant passing shot followed by another Gasquet error to help bring the game back to deuce.

Only minutes later yet another error from Gasquet gave Monfils the all-important break and he made no mistake on his own serve, firing down his 14th ace on match point to seal a hard-fought victory.

In other results, Sweden's Robin Soderling set up his encounter with Federer with a four-set victory over No.21 seed Albert Montanes.

Montanes capitalised on the only break point of the first set to take out the opener 6-4.

But the Spaniard couldn't carry his momentum into the second and Soderling's big serve and powerful hitting proved too much to handle for Montanes, as he dominated the third set and broke his opponent twice in the fourth to run out a 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-3 winner.

"I played very well the longer the match went," Soderling said. "After the first set I played better. It was a good match for me."