Australia's Sydney International men's quarter-final stocks have dwindled to just one after wildcard James Duckworth succumbed in the second round to Jeremy Chardy on Wednesday.
The plucky world No.134, who looked destined to go a set up against the French sixth seed, joined first-round casualties Sam Groth and John Millman in turning their attention to the Australian Open and Melbourne Park after the straight-sets defeat.
Only No.1 seed Bernard Tomic or wildcard Jordan Thompson will be flying the hopes of the home nation in the final eight at Sydney Olympic Park after Duckworth's 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 loss to Chardy.
It could have been so much different though with Duckworth on the brink of winning the first set when 5-3 up in the tie-breaker, but Chardy reeled off four consecutive points to mute the small but vocal support for the Australian.
It wasn't without some controversy though as Chardy argued with the chair umpire after Duckworth damaged his racquet at a crucial stage in the tie-breaker. Duckworth flung it to the ground after the scores were tied at 5-5 in the tie-breaker, but the small break in momentum couldn't halt Chardy who closed out the set.
Duckworth quickly broke Chardy in the second set, but surrendered his advantage straight away and botched his first attempt to serve to stay in the match.
Duckworth will head to Melbourne trying to eclipse his previous best performance of reaching the second round, a level he achieved in three of his four appearances at the Australian Open.
Grigor Dimitrov will play Gilles Muller after second seed Dominic Thiem's Australian Open preparations were thrown into doubt when he retired in his first match of the tournament on Wednesday.
Thiem, who was seeded only below Tomic in Sydney, dropped the first set in a tie-breaker against Luxembourg's Muller before shaking hands at 2-2 in the second set.
Bulgarian fourth seed Dimitrov steamrolled Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas 7-6, 6-4 to set up a quarter-final showdown with the enigmatic Alexandr Dolgopolov, who trumped American qualifier Alexander Sarkissian.
"Today is not that warm, but it was still a little windy and they were tricky conditions," said Dimitrov, who stretched Roger Federer at the Brisbane International last week.
"I'm happy to finish the match in straight sets, which was the most important thing for me. Right now I think I need to play more matches and that's going to help with my ranking and the level I'm trying to achieve."
Dimitrov split with Australian coach Roger Rasheed midway through last year after a career-best 2014 when he reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon and last eight at the Australian Open.
Dimitrov is now working with Juan Martin del Potro's former coach Franco Davin.
"We've established a team around me ... that's important," Dimitrov said. "He's very good for me with a different approach and overall we've had a great off-season. I've worked a lot on my serve return and the first shots in my game were not working well enough and now they're coming together.
"Basically it's about showing your true colours and identity as a player. I'm trying to simplify the game as much as possible."
