After hinting at the fact that it would be a matter of if not when we would start seeing the odd upset creep its way into the Men’s Draw at the 2014 US Open in my Friday morning piece, it was rather fitting to have arguably the two most inconsistent players inside the top twenty to have their tournament come to a crashing halt during Day Five of competition at Flushing Meadows.

Despite jumping out to a two set to none lead, No. 11 seed Ernest Gulbis still found a way to fall in five sets to Austrian youngster Dominic Thiem, (6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 3-6), in what has easily been the biggest upset of the week. While the hard-hitting Latvian was busy blowing what appeared to be a safe lead, Italian Fabio Fognini could not even be bothered to put up much of a fight, losing 3-6, 4-6, 1-6 to Adrian Mannarino.

Just like that, two of the top fifteen seeds were sent packing but not shockingly, all of the names in the upper echelon of the draw continued on their winning ways. No. 2 seed Roger Federer continued his dominance in night session matches at Arthur Ashe Stadium, improving to an eye-popping 24-1 for his career, as he had little problem in bouncing Australian Sam Groth  6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

In what was a very workman like performance from the five-time champion, Federer continued to impress with his overall game…all the while pulling out some jaw-dropping shots. The best of the bunch coming on the final point of set number two, as the Swiss Maestro sent what was simply a ridiculous backhand lob over his towering opponent to finish off a seventeen stroke rally in true Fed style.

Simply put, it was poetry motion.

No. 6 seed Tomas Berdych almost joined Fognini and Gulbis on the outside looking in on Friday afternoon but to his credit, the talented Czech did just enough to sneak past Martin Klizan after being pushed to the distance, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. Grigor Dimitrov did his best Novak Djokovic impression against Dudi Sela, dropping all of five games in destroying the Israeli 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 in a match that took just eighty-nine minutes to complete.

No. 4 seed David Ferrer moved onto to the next round courtesy of a walkover, as Aussie Bernard Tomic was unable to go due to left hip injury, while Gael Monfils treated fans in the Grandstand Court to some breathtaking shot making in sending Colombian Alejandro Gonzalez home in straight sets. The talented Frenchman was at his best in this one, pulling off one highlight reel shot after another and bringing those in attendance to their feet on more than one occasion.

Others advancing to round number three included Kevin Anderson (6-7(6),6-2, 6-1, 6-3 over Jerzy Janowicz), Roberto Bautista Agut (6-3, 6-2, 6-1 over Tim Smyczek), Marin Cilic (7-6(2), 6-2, 6-4 over  Illya Marchenko), Teymuraz Gabashvili (6-1, 6-4, 7-6(4) over Alexander Kudryavtsev), Richard Gasquet (7-6(4), 6-3, 6-3 over Paolo Lorenzi), David Goffin (6-4, 6-2, 6-0 over Joao Sousa), Marcel Granollers (7-6(6), 6-7(3), 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4 over Ivo Karlovic), Feliciano Lopez (6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(4) over Tatsuma Ito) and Gilles Simon (6-4, 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 over Federico Delbonis).