Bernard Tomic has been booed late in his third-round loss to Tomas Berdych at the Miami Open as he let slip a huge chance to upset the world No.9.
The Australian took the first set in a tie-breaker and led 4-0 in the second set but failed to convert any of his four match points before going down to the Czech.
Tomic appeared to struggle in the final stages of Sunday’s match as Berdych prevailed 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-3) 6-1.
A small section of the crowd booed Tomic, who wasn’t moving as freely late in the final set of the match that lasted two hours and 35 minutes.
Last week, wisdom tooth pain and a back injury forced Tomic to pull out of his quarter-final clash with Novak Djokovic at Indian Wells.
Berdych has now won all four of his meetings against Tomic, including a fourth-round victory at the Australian Open in January.
Berdych will face Andy Murray in the fourth round.
Meanwhile, Fernando Verdasco had no such problem in finishing off fellow Spaniard and second seed Rafael Nadal.
Verdasco scored a 6-4 2-6 6-3 upset to leave Nadal, a four-time Miami runner-up, without a title in the Florida city again this year after his 11th appearance.
Verdasco, ranked 29th, defeated Nadal for the second time in a row, although their prior match was three years ago in Madrid.
Nadal saved a match point in the eighth game of the second set trailing 5-2, but Verdasco closed out the shocker a game later with a return winner.
Britain’s Murray won his 499th career match, downing Colombian Santiago Giraldo 6-3 6-4.
The 27-year-old Scotsman, who won the Miami title in 2009 and 2013, would become the ninth active player to reach 500 victories if he wins his next match against South African 15th seed Kevin Anderson, who eliminated Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer 6-4 6-4.
“Hopefully I can win some more throughout my career,” Murray said. “Maybe it doesn’t happen in a couple of days. I hope it does. But if not, then, you know, I’m sure at some stage I will get there.
“I obviously want to try and win more, and hopefully still have quite a few years ahead of me left to add to that number. It’s a lot of wins. It’s not easy these days to win that many matches, so that’s a good sign.”
