The 24-year-old, who has been no stranger to controversy throughout his career, reacted angrily to a decision from the chair umpire when the score was 6-3, 6-7, 1-1.

The game penalty, reportedly given to Kyrgios for swearing, put him 2-1 down in the deciding set at Foro Italico.

It is thought Kyrgios was responding to movement he saw in the crowd.

Kyrgios then kicked a bottle, slammed down his racquet and threw a chair onto court before walking off, which resulted in him defaulting the match.

The incident marked the latest involving the Australian world number 36, who had sparked outrage with his latest deployment of the underarm serve in his victory over Russian Daniil Medvedev earlier this week.

Elsewhere at the Association of Tennis Professionals Masters 1000 event, players were forced to play two matches after rain washed out yesterday's entire schedule.

Switzerland's 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer, making his first appearance at the tournament in the Italian capital since 2016, beat Portugal's Joao Sousa 6-4, 6-3 in his opening contest.

The 36-year-old was then pushed to three sets by Borna Ćorić as he fought back to clinch a 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 win and reach the quarter-finals.

Spanish second seed Rafael Nadal is also through after he dropped just two games, thrashing Jeremy Chardy 6-0, 6-1 and Georgia's Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-1, 6-0.

World number one Naomi Osaka of Japan won two matches as she despatched Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Slovakia's Dominika Cibulková by the same 6-3, 6-3 scoreline to book her quarter-final place.

Britain's Johanna Konta and Karolína Plíšková were among the other players to progress at the Women’s Tennis Association Premier 5 event.