NEW YORK – Marin Cilic continued his title defense Sunday afternoon with a*6–3, 2–6, 7–6, 6–1 victory over No. 27 Jeremy Chardy.
The No. 9 seed this year, Cilic hit 52 winners and 23 aces in the win.*He'll face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals.
Tsonga advanced with a straight-set win over fellow Frenchman Benoit Paire on Sunday. That ended a brilliant run for Paire, who started his tournament by upsetting No. 4 Kei Nishikori in the first round.*
Tsonga served well, taking 89 percent of first-serve points and never facing a break point in the match. He'll*be attempting to advance to the semifinal here for the first time in his career.*
"He's a good player. He beat me a few times in the past on big matches," Tsonga said, looking ahead to the match. "For me, it's gonna be important, you know, to prepare this match as well as possible and try to find a way to go through."
Later Sunday, Fabio Fognini failed to build on his five-set third-round upset over Rafael Nadal. The 32nd seed, Fognini fell 6-3, 7-6, 6-1 to No. 18 Feliciano Lopez. It's a common fate for players who defeat Nadal in slams.
It continues... 18 of the last 21 players to beat Rafael Nadal have lost their next match (in the same tournament).
— Josh Meiseles (@jmeistennis) September 6, 2015
Lopez will play No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who defeated No. 23 Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 under the lights on Sunday evening.
The second set was the first that Djokovic has dropped in the tournament.*Though a solid performance, he didn't look nearly as dominant Sunday has he had in earlier rounds.*
Serving for the win at 5-3 in the fourth set, Djokovic allowed Bautista Agut to break him for the fourth time in the match. But there would be no change of momentum there. Djokovic broke right back to close out the match and advance to the quarterfinal.

He's seeking his second title in New York and third Grand Slam title of the year. Since winning in 2011, he's twice been runner-up at this final slam of the year.
On Monday, Stan Wawrinka, Roger Federer, and Andy Murray make their bids to join Djokovic, Cilic, Lopez and Tsonga in the quarterfinals. Americans John Isner and Donald Young will be looking to upset those plans, as Isner takes on No. 2 Federer and Young faces No. 5 Wawrinka.
----
Danielle Elliot is a writer for Yahoo Sports. You can find her on Twitter and Facebook.*