Andy Murray was forced into a last minute withdrawal from his match against Novak Djokovic due to a bout of food poisoning.
The 34 year-old Scot had been due to face the world number one for the first time in more than five years this morning in the third round of the Madrid Open.
However, with Djokovic having already completed his warm-up he was given a walkover into the quarter finals.
Andy Murray has withdrawn from his match against Novak Djokovic in Madrid due to illness
Murray’s withdrawal hands the Serb a free passage to the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open
Tournament Director Feliciano Lopez told Sportsmail: ‘I had a message yesterday from Andy that he was not feeling well. He had food poisoning, it sounds like he is feeling better this morning but is still not well enough to go on the court ‘.
Murray is said to have been unable to leave his hotel room on Wednesday after finishing his victory over Denis Shapovalov at 12.34am.
Now he must decide whether or not to pursue his original plan of playing in this weekend’s qualifying event for the Italian Open in Rome.
At present he does not plan to play the French Open although must have been encouraged by his performances in the Spanish capital.
Murray accepted a wild card into the event having reversed his original decision – made due to concerns as to how his body would react on the red stuff – to skip the clay court swing
He beat Grand Slam winner Dominic Thiem in the first round before upsetting world No 18 Denis Shapovalov in three sets to set up a meeting with Djokovic.
Dan Evans versus world number eight Andrey Rublev was moved onto the main court in place of Murray and Djokovic.
The two-time Wimbledon champion’s withdrawal hands the Serb a free passage to the quarter-finals where he will face either Hubert Hurkacz or Dusan Lajovic.