Giant-slaying Jordan Thompson's hopes of competing in the Australian Open are in doubt after he hobbled through a second-round loss to Italian Lorenzo Musetti at the Adelaide International.
Thompson, who captured the nation's imagination last week by sensationally saving three match points to stun the great Rafael Nadal in Brisbane, aggravated an upper left leg injury in his 6-4 6-1 defeat to fourth seed Musetti on Wednesday.
After not winning a point on either Musetti's first or second serves in the opening set, Thompson took a medical time-out before becoming further incapacitated in the second set.
Musetti's quarter-final opponent will be eighth seed Alexander Bublik, who mowed down Briton Daniel Evans 4-6 6-2 6-1.
It was a mixed Wednesday at Memorial Drive for the Aussies, with Sydney wildcard Christopher O'Connell marching into the quarter-finals, but South Australian Alex Bolt's dreams of a home fairytale denied by top seed Tommy Paul.
O'Connell hardly broke sweat in trouncing Alexander Shevchenko 6-3 6-1 to book a date with third seed Sebastian Korda in the final eight.
The Australian, who temporarily retired from the sport to clean boats in 2018 following a spate of injuries, whizzed 12 aces past his Russian opponent and didn't face a break point.
Bolt, a quarter-finalist at Adelaide in 2020 and cheered on by a parochial home crowd, was unable to follow O'Connell's lead, thoroughly outclassed by world No.13 Paul 6-3 6-2.
"I couldn't have asked for a better match," said Paul, who will play Britain's Jack Draper for a berth in the semi-finals.
"I thought I played a really clean match. I'm really excited to get the season started. I'm excited to be back out here."
Draper, who beat Paul in last year's Adelaide International, advanced after surviving a drama-filled 5-7 7-6 (11-9) 7-6 (9-7) marathon against Serb Miomir Kecmanovic.
The Brit saved two match points in the second set before overcoming a 2-5 deficit in the third-set tiebreak to prevail in three hours, 39 minutes.
Play was halted for several minutes during the deciding set when Kecmanovic refused to play until a supervisor was called out.
He was irate at being denied a medical time-out while also being on the wrong end of a controversial call, with the umpire ruling a ball that got stuck in the net tape in Draper's favour to put the Englishman up 6-5.
Earlier, second seed Nicolas Jarry saved a match point in his tense 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 victory over Italian Matteo Arnaldi.
Jarry, who also came back from match points down against the same opponent last season in Beijing, fell behind 6-7 in the breaker with two Arnaldi serves to come, before the big Chilean rattled off the next three points and maintained that high level in the third.
Korda advanced with a hard-fought 6-4 7-6 (12-10) win against Italy's Lorenzo Sonego.
