Bernard Tomic has been given a lifeline after Tomas Berdych pulled out of their opening-round clash at the Miami Open, and is now certain to face Novak Djokovic in the second round.
The Czech world No.89 withdrew from the tournament with a recurring back issue on Thursday morning.
Berdych missed the entire hard-court season last year after he withdrew from Wimbledon due to his prolonging back injury.
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"Not a good day in the office, unfortunately I have to pull out of my first round match," he wrote on Twitter.
"My back is not in 100 per cent condition and I have to be careful with my decisions.
"Need time to recover and be strong again."
#NewsUpdate pic.twitter.com/tjm4zpVyiy
— Tomáš Berdych (@tomasberdych) March 20, 2019
But luckily for the Australian, who has never defeated Berdych in their five encounters, drew qualifier Thiago Monteiro for his opening round match.
Defeating the Brazilian qualifier 6-4 6-1, he set up a second round encounter against Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic.
The Serbian has won all five of their head-to-head encounters and has only dropped a single set. The pair last met at the Shanghai Masters in 2015 when the world No.1 took out the quarter-final 7-6(6) 6-1.
Entering Miami Open as the 27th seed, world No.33 Nick Kyrgios will face qualifier Alexander Bublik in the second round.
Also earning a ticket straight into the round-of-64, John Millman will meet Federico Delbonis from Argentina.
