Cape Town - South Africa’s Kevin Anderson on Wednesday reached the third round of the Toronto Masters event in Canada after Austrian opponent Dominic Thiem retired hurt.
The sixth-seeded Thiem was forced to retire with a hip injury after Anderson led 4-1 in the first set.
On Thursday, Anderson will play 12th-seeded Australian Bernard Tomic for a spot in the quarter-finals. Tomic advanced to the third round after surviving a tricky match against local wildcard Steven Diez, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).
Tomic leads the head-to-head rivalry with Anderson 4-0.
Anderson has endured a troublesome, injury-plagued year which has seen him struggle to win matches.
He is currently ranked No 34 on the ATP World Tour rankings - a significant drop in rankings after cracking the Top 10 in October last year.
Results on Wednesday in the Toronto ATP Masters hardcourt tennis tournament (x denotes seeded player):
Second round
Milos Raonic (CAN x4) bt Lu Yen-hsun (TPE) 6-3, 6-3
Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) bt Denis Shapovalov (CAN) 6-4, 6-3
Jack Sock (USA x16) bt Donald Young (USA) 6-4, 6-3
Jared Donaldson (USA) bt Fabio Fognini (ITA) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
Ivo Karlovic (CRO) bt Marin Cilic (CRO x8) 6-4, 7-6 (7/3)
Gael Monfils (FRA x10) bt Vasek Pospisil (CAN) 7-6 (8/6), 6-0
Novak Djokovic (SRB x1) bt Gilles Muller (LUX) 7-5, 7-6 (7/3)
Bernard Tomic (AUS x12) bt Steven Diez (CAN) 6-3, 7-6 (7/4)
Radek Stepanek (CZE) bt Peter Polansky (CAN) 7-6 (7/5), 6-4
Ryan Harrison (USA) bt John Isner (USA x9) 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (4/7), 6-4
David Goffin (BEL x7) bt Sam Querrey (USA) 6-4, 2-1 retired
Rajeev Ram (USA) bt Lucas Pouille (FRA x13) 6-4, 7-6 (7/5)
Kei Nishikori (JPN x3) bt Dennis Novikov (USA) 6-4, 7-5
Kevin Anderson (RSA) bt Dominic Thiem (AUT x6) 4-1 retired