Two-time Grand Slam runner up Stefanos Tsitsipas received a buy-into the Miami Open third round after Richard Gasquet withdrew with an ankle injury.
Greek number two seed Tsitsipas, will now face the winner of Sebastien Baez and Cristian Garin’s second round tie.
Tsitsipas was runner up at this year’s Australian Open and 2021’s French Open but lost his opening round match at Indian Wells earlier this month.
Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alex de Minaur have both slugged it out on court at the Miami Open for close to three-and-a-half hours.
But both Australians have been sent packing after losing in three tiebreak sets in dramatic round-of-64 clashes at the ATP 1000 Masters event in Florida on Saturday.
World No.94 Kokkinakis, who had five match points, was beaten 6-7 (8-10) 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (8-6) by eighth seed Hubert Hurkacz.
The Pole booked his spot in round three against either Adrian Mannarino or Ben Shelton by winning with his only match point opportunity of the contest.
While earlier in the day de Minaur, the top-ranked Aussie, was eliminated by Quentin Halys.
The world No.18 was beaten 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (10-8) by the 70th-ranked Frenchman.
Both players were broken on serve three times across the three-set epic, with Halys saving two match points in the deciding tiebreaker.
Halys sent down a whopping 21 aces to de Minaur’s two, won the winners count 57-33 but made nearly twice as many unforced errors as the 24-year-old Sydneysider.
De Minaur, the 15th seed, was ousted at the same stage in his previous event at Indian Wells last week.
Russian fourth seed Daniil Medvedev scored a 6-1 6-2 win over Spain’s Roberto Carballes Baena, while fifth-ranked Felix Auger-Aliassime did it tougher in seeing off Brazilian Thiago Monteiro, 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (10-8).
The 18th seed Lorenzo Musetti was a straight-sets loser like fellow Italian Matteo Berrettini, the 19th seed beaten 7-6 (10-8) 7-6 (7-5) by American Mackenzie McDonald.
With AAP and AFP