Croatian 12th seed Borna Coric pulled out of his scheduled second-round tie against Grigor Dimitrov at the US Open on Wednesday due to a lower back injury.

The walkover sends former world number three Dimitrov through to face the winner of Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas or Polish lucky loser Kamil Majchrzak for a place in the last 16.

Coric defeated Russian Evgeny Donskoy 7-6 (9/7), 6-3, 6-0 in his opening match and was attempting to make round three in New York for a third straight year.

Dimitrov’s best runs at Flushing Meadows came when he reached the fourth round in 2014 and 2016.

AFP