It was the Fourth of July, American Independence Day. The bunting was out, the flags were fluttering and the fireworks were just waiting for a match (there was even a magnificent cake iced with the Stars and Stripes in the restaurant). It was time for the celebrations to begin.

To get the party underway, four Americans marched proudly out into the sunshine and three of them headed straight for the next round.

Taylor Fritz, at No.5, the highest ranked of all of them, led the way with an authoritative 6-4, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1 win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Looking much refreshed after his day off on Thursday (he had played for three consecutive days until that point), he was in control in the first, second and fourth sets, but Davidovich Fokina wrestled the third from him with an inspired comeback.

“There are lots of parts of my game that work well on the grass,” Fritz concluded, “and it’s nice to play quicker points, get rewarded when I want to pull the trigger on a ball, take a chance. I love the fact that I get rewarded for going for some risky shots and I can play aggressive.”

He was aggressive, all right. Fritz broke in the opening game of the first two sets and from that starting point, no matter how fast Davidovich Fokina ran, he could never quite catch his rival. Not that he didn’t come close, mind you.

If he could get to the net, he could get Fritz on the move, chasing after volleys. More often than not, he could get Fritz in full flight, diving after every ball and, at one point, reopening a gash on his elbow and having to stop, at break point down, to let the medics mop up the blood. He first cut the elbow playing Gabriel Diallo on Wednesday night with a similar full-length dive. But, repaired and ready, Fritz got back to business to repel the break point and hold on to his lead.

“It’s getting pretty annoying having to stop all the time,” he said, laughing. “I feel bad for my opponent as well because I keep having to stop all the time. You can only really do it [dive] on grass. I’d really be hurting myself on any other surface. I’m just really determined to get some of these balls and eventually I’m going to win one of these points. It’s going to be really cool.”

As the American moved serenely to a 5-4 lead, he went to serve for the match and found that Davidovich Fokina was not ready to leave just yet. The newly married Spaniard ran everything down, diving, tumbling and bouncing back to force the tiebreak and take the match to a fourth set. But that is when Fritz pulled rank and accelerated towards the fourth round.

Ben Shelton did not need to unpack his racket back, so quickly did he wrap up his second round encounter with Rinky Hijikata from Australia. They had tried to finish on Thursday night and when Shelton took a 4-2 lead in the third set, it seemed possible. But that was not accounting for Hijikata’s stubborn resistance: he was not able to break back, but he was able to keep Shelton on court as darkness fell.

When they called it for the night, the American was one game from victory. And when they came back on Friday, he needed only four shots – three aces and a service winner – to secure it. Not that that was the original gameplan.

“I wasn't really going for four aces,” he said. “The first serve was supposed to be forehand body. I missed my spot a little bit left. He guessed to the backhand. He full-out guessed for the T. It ended up being an ace.

“Once I get my first ace in a service game, my confidence goes through the roof. After that I started going for aces and abandoned the plan we had. I kind of just improvised as it went.

“I'm just happy with the way I handled it coming out today. It's never ideal mentally having to wake up another day and be on and know that it's a match day. Obviously, I went out there prepared to play two and a half sets. You can't just go out there and be like, 'Yeah, I'm going to hold.' What happens if you don't? That's the tricky part, but all in all, really happy with the win.”

Amanda Anisimova found the party in full swing as she arrived on No.3 Court. She walked away two hours and 19 minutes later having been given a thorough workout by Dalma Galfi of Hungary but having found a way to win 6-3, 5-7, 6-3. As if Galfi was not hard enough to deal with, there was the added distraction of the regular popping of champagne corks to contend with. One even interrupted her service action.

“At some point, I was, like, can everybody just do it on the changeover?” she said, smiling. “It was definitely a bit distracting. Then again, I have to just adjust, try and focus as much as I can. But, yeah, it can be a little loud when people are doing their external things, but I love the atmosphere and the energy and the crowd supporting me, so it's been good.”

Madison Keys could not join her compatriots in the winners’ enclosure as she went out to Laura Siegemund of Germany 6-3, 6-3.

Still, it had been a day to celebrate for America. It was time for those fireworks. Light the blue touch paper and stand well back…