Bernard Tomic is in a desperate fight to retain his grand slam seeding status as Nick Kyrgios lines up to potentially send his erstwhile Davis Cup teammate tumbling further down the rankings.
A finalist in Acapulco last year, Tomic returns to Mexico having slumped to No.41 in the world and facing a likely spicy second-round showdown with Kyrgios on Thursday (AEDT).
Tomic takes on American Donald Young in his opener on Wednesday, with sixth-seeded Kyrgios playing Israeli Dudi Sela.
Victories for the two Australians would set up an intriguing first-time meeting between the one-time grand slam doubles partners.
The much-anticipated clash would come less than a month after Tomic controversially pulled out of Australia's first-round Davis Cup win over the Czech Republic in Melbourne.
Tomic cited scheduling issues for his absence from the February 3-5 tie - despite not playing anywhere after the Australian Open until a fortnight ago.
"It's disappointing not having him here. There's no reason why he shouldn't be here," Kyrgios said at Kooyong at the time.
Kyrgios's questioning of Tomic's no-show came less than a year after Tomic accused his 2014 US Open doubles partner of faking illness to avoid Australia's first-round Davis Cup loss to the USA, also in Melbourne.
Any possible locker-room tension aside, Tomic is under growing pressure to arrest his rankings slide following a rough start to 2017.
Back-to-back first-round defeats in Memphis - where he lost to world No.140 Darian King - and Delray Beach left the 24-year-old with just two wins so far this season, both coming at the Australian Open.
Flying at a career-high No.17 in the world barely a year ago, Tomic has been seeded in his past eight grand slam appearances.
But he now faces the prospect of spiralling outside the top 50 ahead of the European claycourt swing if he's unable to turn around his fortunes.
Should Tomic and Kyrgios win their openers in Acapulco, the "reward" for the winner of their second-round tussle is a likely quarter-final clash with top seed Novak Djokovic, the former world No.1 who's playing for the first time since his shock early exit at Melbourne Park.
Meanwhile, Jordan Thompson - who replaced Tomic to make his Davis Cup debut earlier this month - has joined his two countrymen in the Acapulco main draw as a qualifying "lucky loser".
He will play Feliciano Lopez in the first round.
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