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Serena Williams of the United States reacts during the third round match of women's singles against Victoria Azarenka of Belarus at US Open tennis tournament in New York, Sept. 3, 2011. Williams won 2-0. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)
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Williams, who missed last year's tournament at the start of an 11-month injury and life-threatening illness lay-off, announced his strong return in a stylish match overpowering Azarenka.
"Definitely his serve keeps him in there all the time," said Cilic. "And today he was, in those crucial moments, finding a way to make the game a little more difficult for me to read what he was going to do."
The Croat double-faulted to give Federer a 5-4 lead in the third set and never recovered. He had just received a time violation by the umpire prior to his costly error.
Federer conceded the timing of the violation took him by surprise.
"These time violations come out of nowhere sometimes and then they'll never come back again," he said.
"If he was really taking too much time it's correct that you warn a guy but then you should just stay tough and also go to point penalty.
"Marin was playing pretty quick, like I was. It was a tough call."
Federer is currently is tied with Jimmy Connors and Pete Sampras for the most U.S. Open titles since the sport turned professional in 1968.
Williams, the 13-time Grand Slam champion, seeded just 28th, next faces either former world number one Ana Ivanovic of Serbia or U.S. wildcard Sloane Stephens for a place in the quarterfinals.
In a tournament missing defending champion Kim Clijsters, and which saw Maria Sharapova, French Open champion Li Na and Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova all failed to reach the second round, Williams looks the hot favorite.
Asked what it felt like to be blitzed 5-0 after just 17 minutes of their match, Azarenka said: "It's painful."
The Belarusian believes the American will comfortably win the title next weekend.
"Definitely. She's playing at a higher level than I've seen her play in a few years."
Williams, who saw three match points slip away in the ninth game of the second set, insisted she still has much to work on.
"I think in the first set I played some really good tennis. In the second, she kind of dictated. I probably could have played better."
