Second seed Dominic Thiem exited the ATP & WTA Apia International Sydney on Wednesday, retiring in the early stages of the second set of his second-round clash with Gilles Muller.
Muller had won the first set 7/2 on a tie-break and his progress was sealed when his Austrian opponent called it a day at 2-2 in the second set with what was described by tournament organisers as a "right forefoot blister".
The 32-year-old from Luxembourg will face Jeremy Chardy in the quarter-finals after the sixth seed from France proved too strong for local favourite James Duckworth, beating the Australian wild card 7-6 (7/5) 6-4.
In the last men's match of the day, t op seed Bernard Tomic trounced fellow Australian Jordan Thompson 6-2 6-2 in just over 49 minutes, the Germany-born 23-year-old winning 92 per cent of points on his first serve.
Next up for Tomic is Russia's Teymuraz Gabashvili, who saw off Argentina's Federico Del Bonis 6-3 6-3.
Nicolas Mahut earned his place in the last eight with a hard-fought 6-3 1-6 6-3 success against Andreas Seppi, the fifth seed from Italy. The Frenchman will play fourth-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov - a 7-6 (7/2) 6-4 victor over Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas - in the quarter-finals.
The other last-eight tie will see third seed Viktor Troicki of Serbia do battle with eighth seed Alexandr Dolgopolov from Ukraine.
Troicki toppled Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-1 6-4 in round two, while Dolgopolov defeated American Alexander Sarkissian 7-6 (8/6) 6-2.
Romanian top seed Simona Halep was a straight-sets winner in the women's quarter-finals, overcoming fifth-seeded Czech Karolina Pliskova - runner-up last year - 6-4 7-5.
Halep will face Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova in the last four, the former US Open and French Open champion beating Sara Errani of Italy 7-6 (7/1) 6-0.
Thursday's other semi-final will see Puerto Rico's Monica Puig take on Switzerland's Belinda Bencic.
Puig beat Australia's 2011 US Open champion Samantha Stosur 6-4 6-4, while eighth seed Bencic overcame a second-set blip to oust Russia's Ekaterina Makarova 6-0 2-6 6-4.
Source: PA
