MELBOURNE, Australia — An hour after his win, Andy Murray still hadn’t been able to get any video to see how he twisted his ankle and tumbled to the ground.

There’s a good chance the most-viewed clip by that stage at the Australian Open was of the between-the-legs shot by Nick Kyrgios late Wednesday in his surprising loss to Andreas Seppi in the second round.

The third day of the season-opening Grand Slam had gone generally to script until the evening.

Roger Federer’s progress was straight-forward, beating 20-year-old qualifier Noah Rubin 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (3) to maintain his record of never failing to reach the third round at the 18 Australian Opens he’s contested.

After back-to-back wins over qualifiers, the 17-time Grand Slam champion’s comeback from a six-month injury layoff will increase in the degree of difficulty. Next up, Federer faces 2010 Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych, who had a 6-3, 7-6 (6), 6-2 win over Ryan Harrison.

Also looming, potentially, is No. 5 Kei Nishikori, the 2014 U.S. Open finalist.

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They’re all in the top-heavy quarter of the draw with the top-ranked Murray, who for a few moments was wondering if he’d make it to the third round.

Murray’s shoe caught on the surface and he tumbled to the court at Rod Laver Arena, clutching his right ankle and cringing in pain during the third game of the third set against No. 156-ranked Andrey Rublev.

The five-time Australian Open runner-up continued and won that game but told himself, loudly, “It’s not good news.” He saw a trainer during the next change of ends but decided he didn’t need any extra treatment on his already heavily braced joint.

He limped and stretched but went on to win 6-3, 6-0, 6-2.

“I was moving OK toward the end,” he said. “That’s positive.”

Murray mentioned that his ankle throbbed during the match and he didn’t know the cause.

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“It just a little bit stiff just now,” he said, but “I don’t think I’ve done too much damage.”

It was Murray’s 178th win in a Grand Slam match, joining Stefan Edberg in a tie for eighth in the Open era.

Murray next faces No. 31 Sam Querrey, who had a 7-6 (5), 6-0, 6-1 win over 17-year-old wild-card entry Alex De Minaur.

U.S. Open champion Stan Wawrinka, who won his first major title in Melbourne in 2014, advanced 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 over Steve Johnson and will next play No. 29 Viktor Troicki in the lower quarter of the draw’s top half.

That part of the draw is now missing No. 7 Marin Cilic and the 14th-seeded Kyrgios, who were beaten in night matches.

Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, lost in four sets to Daniel Evans. Seppi, ranked 89th, rallied from two sets down and saved a match point to beat Kyrgios 1-6, 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-2, 10-8.

Seppi was serving for the match when Kyrgios changed the pace of a rally with the between-the-legs shot. Kyrgios won the point, and that game, but Seppi kept his cool and won the match, closing with an ace.


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