The former junior rivals first played at tour level back in 2004 and Nadal has won every encounter since.

The Spanish second seed was brutal in a 6-0 6-1 7-5 win over the Frenchman in two hours 17 minutes.

After being dealt a blow on the nose with his own racket in his second-round victory over Fabio Fognini, Nadal avoided any such mishaps this time.

"It's a little bit bigger than usual but it's OK, the nose is still there.," he said with a smile.

"Three matches already, I increased a little bit the level today so that's important for me I think. I'm happy for that against a very good friend like Richard. I need to keep playing better and better to have chances to go through."

Nadal has won four of his 22 grand slam titles at Flushing Meadows, most recently in 2019 and the last time he entered the hard-court tournament.

Nadal, who won his 30th night match at Arthur Ashe Stadium, has won 34 straight sets against Gasquet and will play Frances Tiafoe next after the 22nd-seeded American defeated 14th seed Diego Schwarzman of Argentina 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 6-4.

World No.4 Carlos Alcaraz swept aside another local in Jenson Brooksby 6-3 6-3 6-3 inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The Spanish teen rocketed to stardom as the youngest man to reach the quarter-final at Flushing Meadows last year and looks on track for another memorable run.

"I played really, really well," the 19-year-old said in an on-court interview.

"I knew that it was going to be a tough match... I'm really happy with my performance."

The third seed has enjoyed a terrific 2022, winning in Miami and Barcelona before downing a fearsome trio of Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev to triumph in Madrid.

Alcaraz takes on Marin Cilic next after the 2014 champion enjoyed a 7-6 (13-11) 6-7 (3-7) 6-2 7-5 win over 20th-seeded Brit Daniel Evans.

Better news for seventh seed Cameron Norrie who denied using gamesmanship during his third-round win over Holger Rune.

The British No.1 is continuing to live up to his top-10 ranking and kept 19-year-old Rune at arm's length during a 7-5 6-4 6-1 victory.

The Dane has a reputation as a spiky character and during the second set he protested to the umpire about Norrie catching his ball toss before serving.

Players are allowed 25 seconds between points but the clock stops when the server throws up the ball, meaning catching the toss buys extra time to reset.

Rune implied to the umpire he thought Norrie was deliberately exploiting a loophole in the rules.

"It's a bit annoying. I'm not controlling the rules but I think you can do it a couple of times but doing it 10, 15 times is maybe too much," said the teenager.

Norrie will next battle with Russian ninth seed Andrey Rublev, who beat Denis Shapovalov 6-4 2-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 7-6 (10-7) despite hitting only 38 winners and having nine aces to the 19th-seeded Canadian's 76 winners and 23 aces.

Italian 11th seed Jannik Sinner surrendered the opening set but battled back to seal a 3-6 6-4 6-1 6-2 victory over American Brandon Nakashima to book a clash with Ilya Ivashka.

Ivashka defeated Sinner's compatriot Lorenzo Musetti 6-4 3-6 6-2 6-3.

With AP and PA.

Australian Associated Press