It took two hours, three sets and one major fashion disaster, but Nick Kyrgios is through to the third round of the Australian Open after overcoming world No41 Pablo Cuevas 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (7-2) at Hisense Arena.

This win was not without its obstacles for the Australian and he was squabbling with the chair umpire as early as the mid-way point of his first service game, but he settled to claim an early break before taking out the first set in 35 minutes.

An early break also came in the second set and Kyrgios looked set to tear the match apart but at 3-2 on serve he gifted the Uruguayan a break of his own and clearly agitated, set off on a prolonged period of one-way arguments towards his entourage in the stands. Among them were brother Christos and injured Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis.

The source of that beef was soon revealed to be the baggy white shorts at which Kyrgios had been tugging throughout the match, a situation he rectified by disappearing down the tunnel for an alternative, quite literally the man in black upon his return and for the briefest moment more relaxed.

Cuevas certainly had the odd supporter scattered around the arena but they weren’t among the vocal minority goading and distracting Kyrgios in his home grand slam, a situation that perhaps threatens to become an attraction all of its own for Australian crowds. For now he continues to snap back and put them in their place, but you wonder how much unnecessary energy such interplays will drain from Kyrgios in time and against tougher opponents than this. At 5-5 in the second set he composed himself well enough to prise an opening via two break points and then held serve to take a two set buffer.

There were wobbly moments in the third set too, which again started with an early break for the Australian, but not long after calling for the trainer and receiving attention to soreness of his right triceps he lost his serve and was back to his earlier incandescent self, slamming his towel down at the changeover and bickering with himself.

Kyrgios sent down his dangerous first serve at 65% throughout the match but after it momentarily deserted him while down 4-5 in the third set he needed to pull himself back from two set points and did so en route to a resounding tiebreak win. He’ll now face Czech Tomas Berdych in a tricky third-round encounter.

Here, Kyrgios’ 50 winners to the Uruguayan’s 32 told a decent tale of the gulf in weaponry. Thirty-year-old veteran Cuevas probably couldn’t care less at this point but as the sleeveless, cocksure Australian sent rasping forehands past him he was falling victim to one of Kyrgios’ most endearing traits – the ability to make present players look like the past.

“It was an absolute circus,” Kyrgios later said of his warbrobe difficulties. “I’m not going to talk about it too much. It was just a massive mix up and I guess it’s just part of some of the challenges you face.”

Conveniently for Kyrgios and perhaps even to the betterment of the game itself, the Australian seems to be drawing new fans to the game, the kind who are only vaguely familiar with the conventions of tennis and accordingly don’t care how many of them he breaks. The question now is how much these youthful excesses will hold him back from a serious title challenge.