|
 Kyrgios, who is well known for his outbursts off court and profanity
on it, made a jibe at Wawrinka during the second set of their match
about the Swiss player's apparent girlfriend.
"Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend," Kyrgios was caught saying by
television cameras in reference to his Davis Cup team mate Thanasi
Kokkinakis. "Sorry to tell you that, mate."
It was unclear whether Wawrinka, who withdrew with a back injury in
the third set while trailing 4-0, heard the jibe, though his coach
Magnus Norman criticized the Australian on Twitter afterwards.
"That was really really low Nick Kyrgios," Norman wrote. "Hope for u
that u have people around that will teach u a thing or 2 about life
tonight. Very bad."
Number two seed Murray, who received a first-round bye, avoided the
fate of so many other seeds, though he was extended by Spain's Tommy
Robredo before coming through for a 6-4 7-5 win.
Robredo looked poised to force a second-set tiebreak, up 30-0 on
serve at 5-6, only to lose four straight points and fall to the
Scotsman.
The Spaniard made three consecutive mistakes to gift Murray match
point, before the former U.S. Open and Wimbledon champion closed out
the match after a 26-stroke rally with a drop shot that caught the
top of the net and toppled over.
“Today was the best I hit the ball on the hardcourts since I started
playing on it again,” said Murray, who was ousted in his first match
in Washington last week on the same surface.
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“I felt like I was returning (serve) a little bit better, which is
important for my game."
Next up for Murray is unseeded Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, who beat
15th seed Gael Monfils of France in a third-set tiebreak 6-3 3-6
7-6(4).
Defending champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga narrowly escaped a challenge
by Roberto Bautista Agut 5-7 7-6 7-5.
Other seeds to fall were Czech Tomas Berdych (number five), Croatian
Marin Cilic (six), Canadian Milos Raonic (eight), Frenchman Gilles
Simon (nine) and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (14).
But seventh seed Nadal, in his first hardcourt appearance since
March, showed few signs of rust as he used a dominating first serve
to dust off Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 7-6 6-3.
Fourth seed Kei Nishikori also advanced with a 6-3 6-3 win over
Spaniard Pablo Andujar.
(Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina and Jahmal Corner
in Los Angeles; Editing by Larry Fine/Greg Stutchbury)
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