The highly-ranked Australian tennis player, sometimes derided as Tomic The Tank Engine, will once again come under the spotlight for his on-court attitude, this time after 'trying' to return serve with a reversed racquet when match point down against Italy's Fabio Fognini.

Tomic was trailing 6-2, 5-4, 40-0 when he held his racquet the wrong way and barely moved as Fognini fired down an ace to advance at the Madrid Open. It was another day to forget on clay for Tomic, who exited at the first hurdle for the third successive tournament.

The world No.22 is yet to win a match since being forced to retire with a wrist injury in the third round at Indian Wells in March against big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic.

It's not the first time the Australian has made headlines over a mid-match meltdown.

Earlier this year, Tomic retired midway through his Sydney International match against Teymuraz Gabashvili, citing illness as the reason. But he copped criticism for his timing, having already discovered his Australian Open draw for the following week.

Tomic was heard exchanging in a conversation with the umpire about the favourable draw he received and how there was little benefit in playing on in Sydney when his ranking would only go up by one position if he won the tournament.

"As I was warming up I looked at my phone. I knew I was going to get the text, and I got the text of the draw and it was very good for me," Tomic said at the time.

"So feeling sick, playing two matches today, it was going to be very difficult.

"I have to play maybe Monday there. For me, the best idea was not to play. I love Sydney so much. It's just a shame I couldn't be 100% today. That's the way it is. That's tennis."

At the US Open in 2012, tennis great John McEnroe accused Tomic of tanking in the final set of his 6-3 6-4 6-0 loss to Andy Roddick.

"Tomic is teeing it up. It looks like the tank job," McEnroe said while commentating on prime-time TV in America.

"This is a shame. You don't like to see this. I like to see Andy win but, other than that, it's poor."

But the Australian denied tanking, saying he had suffered from stage fright.

"I was a bit nervous the first set. It's very difficult the first time to be in front of 22,000 people," Tomic said. "It's very different. A different feeling playing on the back courts than playing on the biggest stage in the world, biggest country in the world. I wasn't looking up, that's for sure. More I looked up, the more I realised how much people were there."

Tomic also holds the record for the shortest completed ATP match - 28 minutes. That record was set in his loss to Jarkko Nieminen in 2014. Tomic was returning from a long injury layoff at the time.

And the young Aussie has made headlines for more than just his on-court antics. In March this year he had a public spat with compatriot Nick Kyrgios over Kyrgios' failure to compete in Australia's Davis Cup tie with the US.​

In other results from Spain, Kyrgios is through to the second round at the Madrid Open after a hard-fought 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 win over Argentina's Guido Pella.

The world No.21 slammed down 16 aces against the player ranked 50th in the world and will now face old foe Stan Wawrinka for a place in the third round.

The world No.4 and French Open champion was given a bye into the second round and the last two meetings between the pair have resulted in retirements.

Kyrgios called time during the ATP event in Dubai in February with Wawrinka doing likewise in the controversial clash between the pair in Canada last year.

That match resulted in a fine and 28-day suspended suspension for the Australian following comments he made to the Swiss during the match.

In-form Spaniard Rafael Nadal cruised past Andrey Kuznetsov 6-3 6-3 to win his 11th consecutive match this year and advance to the third round.

Nadal broke Kuznetsov's serve once in the first set and twice in the second to secure the win in his opening match at the clay-court tournament that he has won twice in the past three seasons.

The former No.1, who'll next face either American Sam Querrey or Frenchman Lucas Pouille, hasn't lost since his opening match at the Miami Open in March and is coming off consecutive titles at the Monte Carlo Masters and Barcelona Open.

World No.2 Andy Murray advanced with a hard-fought 7-6 3-6 6-1 win over 37-year-old Radek Stepanek and Gael Monfils survived an injury scare as the 13th-seeded Frenchman carried onto a 6-4 6-1 victory over Kevin Anderson after rolling his ankle.

With AAP