Kyrgios surrenders two-set lead to crash out of Australian Open

— -- Nick Kyrgios?self-destructed to crash out of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park.

In a spectacular collapse, Kyrgios blew a two-set advantage to fall 1-6, 6-7 (1-7), 6-4, 6-1, 10-8 to Italian Andreas Seppi after engaging in a running verbal battle with his courtside box.

Kyrgios -- who carried a knee injury into the season's first Grand Slam -- appeared peeved about apparently having to put in extra work on his day off on Tuesday.

The Australian Open's 14th seed had been in command before his midmatch meltdown.

He stood two games from winning a place in the third round at 4-4 in the third set when, after constantly bickering toward his entourage, he was broken for the first time.

Kyrgios was docked a penalty point after receiving a second code violation for angrily smashing his racket into the court on the ensuing changeover, before Seppi served out the set to gain a foothold in the match.

He dropped serve twice more as Seppi raced through the fourth set to force a decider -- two years after Kyrgios denied the Italian 8-6 in the fifth on the same court at Melbourne Park.

Watching on from the Seven Network bunker, Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt hoped his Davis Cup charge could turn the contest around.

"He plays his best tennis when he's happy, in that happy place. For some reason, he's not now. He's struggling," Hewitt said.

Fellow former world No. 1 Jim Courier described Kyrgios' antics as "apathetic."

"He seems to be making a specific point to someone in his team that they messed up," Courier said.

"At one point, does he re-engage?"

Kyrgios re-engaged to again close to within five points of victory with Seppi serving at 3-4 and love-40 in the tense deciding set.

Seppi -- who took out Roger Federer in the third round three years ago -- saved all three break points, including the first with a lucky net cord, before wriggling free to hold.

He broke Kyrgios the very next game, but staring down the barrel, the Australian broke straight back after an audacious between-the-legs shot to send the capacity crowd inside Hisense Arena into raptures.

He garnered a match point in the 17th game of the crazy final set, but Seppi rifled a fearless forehand winner down the line to stay alive before breaking Kyrgios and closing out the roller-coaster affair after three hours and nine minutes.

"I just kept fighting," Seppi said. "Maybe it was meant to be."

While Kyrgios will ponder an opportunity lost, Seppi can look forward to a date on Friday with world No. 71 Steve Darcis, with a likely fourth-round showdown with triple Grand Slam champion and US Open titleholder Stan Wawrinka at stake.