Australia’s Nick Kyrgios denied calling an official “dirty s***” but could find himself in trouble following a bad-tempered exchange in his first-round victory over Diego Schwartzman at Wimbledon yesterday.

Kyrgios was two sets up in his 6-0 6-2 7-6(6) win over the Argentine when he confronted umpire Mohamed Lahyani about a contentious call in the third set.

The Australian demanded a referee come onto court to clarify the rules and was then heard saying “dirty s***”.

“I wasn’t referring to the ref at all there,” Kyrgios, who turned last year’s tournament on its head by knocking out then world number one Rafa Nadal to reach the quarter-finals, told reporters.

“It was towards myself. But, yeah, I mean, obviously I knew you guys were going to ask me about that.”

When asked why he would call himself that he replied: “Because I can.”

The argument arose when Schwartzman was awarded a point after a shot that was originally called out was deemed to have hit the baseline after a challenge.

Kyrgios claimed the point should have been replayed because he heard the linesman’s call before he played his shot.

Asked how he would feel if he was fined for his outburst, the 20-year-old replied in typically feisty fashion: “Wouldn’t bother me one bit.”