Australians Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic ousted higher-ranked opponents in vastly different circumstances on Wednesday to advance to the third round of the Montreal Masters.
Reigning Australian and French Open champion Stan Wawrinka retired with a lower back injury in the deciding set against Kyrgios, but not before the Australian sledged his Swiss opponent.
A courtside microphone picked up Kyrgios linking Wawrinka with teenaged Australian player, Thanasi Kokkinakis.
“Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend. Sorry to tell you that mate,” said Kyrgios.
When asked after the 6-7 (8-10) 6-3 4-0 victory why he made the comment, Kyrgios replied: “He was getting a bit lippy with me.
“Kind of in the heat of the moment. I don’t know. I just said it.”
Wawrinka divorced his wife Ilham earlier this year and has been linked romantically with teenaged Croatian player Donna Vekic.
Kyrgios will play big American John Isner in the third round.
Tomic also ousted a seed, downing No.6 Marin Cilic from Croatia 6-3 6-4 to set up a third-round clash with French 10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who scraped past Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut 5-7 7-6 (8-6) 7-5.
If Tomic and Kyrgios can go deeper in Montreal, they boost their chances of higher seedings at the US Open.
In another upset, American Donald Young tipped out No.5 seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7-5) 6-3.
Andy Murray completed a job left hanging at 4-4 in the first set from the night before because of rain, advancing to the third round with a 6-4 7-5 win over Tommy Robredo.
Rafael Nadal made an encouraging start to his US Open preparations, defeating Sergiy Stakhovsky 7-6 (7-4) 6-3.
Japanese fourth seed Kei Nishikori, winner of the Washington title and jumping to a career-high fourth in the rankings, scored a 6-3 6-3 over Spain’s Pablo Andujar in 70 minutes.
American Jack Sock sprang an upset on troubled 14th seed Grigor Dimitrov, who went down 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 7-5.
Over recent weeks, the Bulgarian – once tipped as a future Roger Federer – lost his Australian coach Roger Rasheed and Russian girlfriend Maria Sharapova.
