Spanish eighth seed Nadal, a 14-time Grand Slam champion, ousted Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman 7-6 (7/5), 6-3, 7-5, for his 750th career tour-level match triumph while top-ranked Djokovic stayed on a last-eight collision course with Nadal by dispatching Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-4, 6-1, 6-2.
The reigning Australian Open and Wimbledon champion, whose only US Open title came in 2011, won 14 of the final 17 games.
“From that 4-all moment, I played really well,” Djokovic said.
Nadal was down 5-4 in the first set tie-breaker before battling back against Schwartzman.
“Happy to be through,” Nadal said. “Was a tough battle. I feel lucky to be through. To take that first set was very important to me.”
Nadal, the 2010 and 2013 US Open champion, improved to 22-1 in his past 23 US Open matches after missing 2012 and 2014 due to injury and finishing as the 2011 runner-up.
Canadian 10th seed Milos Raonic, who could meet Nadal in the fourth round, fired 18 aces in dispatching Spain’s Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/1).
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Defending champion Marin Cilic and seventh seed David Ferrer neared a fourth-round meeting as well.
Croatian ninth seed Cilic fired 19 aces in defeating 139th-ranked Russian qualifier Evgeny Donskoy 6-2, 6-3, 7-5.
Spain’s Ferrer, the 2013 French Open runner-up who missed the past 2 1/2 months with an elbow injury, downed 102nd-ranked Serb Filip Krajinovic 7-5, 7-5, 7-6 (7/4).
“I’m very happy I’m in the third round,” said Ferrer. “It’s a nice comeback playing on these courts.”