Reuters
Montreal, August 13: Australia’s Nick Kyrgios courted more controversy with an off-colour remark to his opponent Stan Wawrinka while Andy Murray and Rafa Nadal advanced in the second round in a day of upsets at the Rogers Cup here Wednesday.
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 TV cameras in reference to his Davis Cup teammate 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 0-4 heard the jibe as he shook hands with the Australian after calling it quits.
Murray, who is the second seed here moved ahead with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Spain’s Tommy Robredo while Nadal did not show any rustiness in his 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 demolition of Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine.
Robredo looked poised to force a second-set tie-break against, 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 US 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 hard courts since I started playing on it again,” said Murray, who was ousted in his first match in Washington last week on the same surface. “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 (7-4). Fourth seed Kei Nishikori also advanced with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Spaniard Pablo Andujar.
Rohan-Florin ousted
Montreal: Indo-Romanian tennis pair of Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea was ousted from the men’s doubles second round at the $3.5 million Canadian Open here Wednesday. They went down 3-6, 7-5, 3-10 to the newly-formed combo of Novak Djokovic and Janko Tipsarevic. After sharing the first two sets, it all boiled down to the super tie-break where the Serbian combine proved much better, advancing to the quarterfinals.
