A decision not to penalise Nick Kyrgios for throwing his racquet during Tuesday night's Australian Open quarter-final against Andy Murray left some spectators divided.

As Murray stole the second set 7-6, Kyrgios made a small unforced error in the tie break and smashed his racquet to the ground.

He then moved quickly to replace his racquet with a new one.

Channel Seven commentator Jim Courier pointed out that it should have been an automatic (second) code violation and the loss of the point, and therefore the loss of the set as Murray was only one point away from taking it. However, Murray proceeded to close out the set anyway.

According to the Tennis Australia Code of Behaviour, abuse of racquets or equipment are violations of the code.

Appendix 1 of the Code defines the breach as when "a player violently or with anger, hits, kicks or throws a racquet or other equipment, or in any way unreasonably interferes with any court fixtures and equipment within the precinct".

"For the purposes of this rule abuse of racquets or equipment is defined as intentionally and violently throwing, destroying or damaging racquets or equipment or intentionally and violently hitting the net, court, umpire's chair or other fixture during or after a match out of anger or frustration," it says.

Tennis Australia's Code of Behaviour says the player shall be notified where any point penalty is applied "immediately where a chair umpire is present".

Even Murray seemed a bit surprised that Kyrgios was not warned for his racquet-breaking.

At his press conference on Tuesday night, Murray was asked by a reporter: "Do you think he should have gotten a point penalty in the tie-break there when he broke his racquet?"

Murray responded: "I don't know if there's a rule that I -- I haven't, in the last three, four years, seen someone break a racquet and not get a warning. Any time it's happened to me, if I've broken a racquet, I've always gotten a warning.

"I just asked the umpire, and he said, no, it doesn't always have to be automatic. But I asked the question because I haven't seen that happen for a long time."

On Twitter, Tennis spectators were unimpressed with Kyrgios' behaviour, suggesting he should have been penalised for the action.

Has #Murray even broken sweat yet? #Kyrgios needs to concentrate more on smashing the ball rather than his racket. #AusOpen — John Russell (@johnrussell79) January 27, 2015

Another broken racket #Kyrgios ? Murray deserved to be given that set. Why have a rule to not enforce it? #karma #AusOpen #tempertemper — Helen Grundy (@helengrundy2009) January 27, 2015

Not sure it's doing Kyrgios any long-run favors to let him avoid penalties. Should have been pt penalty & set for racket breakage end of 2d — Christopher Clarey (@christophclarey) January 27, 2015

Sorry but Kyrgios is just another Tomic in the making!! Death staring the umpire over a call then smashing your racket screams "spoiltbrat" — jasoncx17 (@jasoncx17) January 27, 2015

It's not the first time Kyrgios has smashed his racquet during the 2015 tournament.

The teen sensation attracted criticism for his on-court tantrums during fourth round match against Italy's Andreas Seppi.

The 19-year-old launched expletive-laden tirades at fans, while also hammering ball kids, line officials and the umpire during the five-set thriller.

Social media users were quick to react to reports of Kyrgios swearing at a member of the crowd, including one person using their mobile phone. 

#Kyrgios and #Murray to go head to head. On that note, it'll be interesting to see who throws the bigger tantrum. #AusOpen #tantrumtennis — Natalie Aoun (@spoonofaoun) January 25, 2015

Tuesday Night #Kyrgios vs #Murray . So many names for this match up come to mind. The Battletude,War of Whingers,The Complainers Crusade.... — Lukas Vandenbergh (@lukasvdb10) January 25, 2015

In the press conference following his loss to Murray on Tuesday night, one reporter questioned Kyrgios on how he had viewed the attention he had received during the Open, asking: "Andy said on court that we should just back off and let you mature and the like. Are we being a bit hyper-critical in Australia for this or did you expect that given you're the main game?"

To which Kyrgios responded: "Just listen to Andy I guess, he's pretty successful."