ANDY MURRAY, the British No.1, says Nick Kyrgios is a "not a bad guy", but must learn from his mistakes to build the respect of fellow players and critics following his lewd taunt to Stan Wawrinka at the Montreal Masters.

Kyrgios was fined £6405 and sparked a social media storm after telling the Swiss double-major champion that his reported girlfriend Donna Vekic had been previously involved with Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis.

Wawrinka has been romantically linked with the 19-year-old Croatian, who played mixed doubles with Kokkinakis at the Australian Open last year.Wawrinka reacted furiously to Kyrgios' comments and called for the ATP to take action against Kyrgios, who later issued a public apology.

But Murray believes Kyrgios “made a mistake” and is “not all bad”.

“I don’t want to say anything bad about Nick because I like him, but the most important thing is that he learns from what happened on Wednesday,” said Murray. “In tennis, yeah, there’s certain things you shouldn’t do and that was one of them. Hopefully he learns from it.

“Nick is not all bad. People want to make it like he is, but he’s a young guy who’s growing up in the spotlight and there’s been a lot of negativity towards him in the last few months and that isn’t easy to deal with.

“I think that it’s important that he learns from the mistake but that everyone gives him a little break as well because he’s not a bad guy. He’s just made some mistakes and he’ll learn from them and become a better person I’m sure.”

Kyrgios was jeered by some supporters as he crashed out of the Rogers Cup on the day he apologised and was fined for his jibe towards Stan Wawrinka.

Kyrgios was also booed as he emerged onto the Banque Nationale court and received similar opprobrium as he exited the stadium after a 7-5 6-3 defeat to the big-serving American John Isner.

The mercurial Australian wrote on Twitter: “Tough crowd today & even tougher opponent, well played @JohnIsner unreal serving mate. Good luck in the next round. #TooGood.”

He had earlier written on Facebook: “I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for the comments I made during the match last night vs Stan Wawrinka.

“My comments were made in the heat of the moment and were unacceptable on many levels.

“In addition to the private apology I’ve made, I would like to make a public apology as well. I take full responsibility for my actions and regret what happened.”

And even world No.1 Novak Djokovic, who breezed through his third-round match against Jack Sock on Thursday, lined up to criticise Kyrgios.

The Serb said in his press conference, shown on sportsnet.ca: “I’m not one who should judge reaction but in my opinion it was completely unnecessary to comment on something like that.

“He was fined and he deserved it. He’s learned a lesson in a hard way and hopefully this won’t happen to him any more. It’s not fair and there’s no excuse of directing your tantrums to your opponent and especially to someone who is not even there.”

Djokovic added: “Some players have the problem to control themselves on court sometimes when you go through emotional challenges and it slips out of your mouth, but there’s no excuse for what he said yesterday.”

Meanwhile, Australia’s Davis Cup captain Wally Masur has played down the sledge as “not confrontational” and said he was still in Australia’s Davis Cup plans for their semi-final against Great Britain next month.

“How punitive can you be? At what point do you start to move forward?” Masur told local broadcaster Fox Sports.

“Nick is paying a very heavy price financially. Obviously the consequences will go beyond this week, for example amongst his peers on the tour, the ATP player council, they’ll have their say.”

However, former Australian great Judy Dalton says the player should be banned from Davis Cup and the upcoming US Open over his “disgraceful” comments.

“He’s a professional tennis player and you just don’t behave like that,” she said on Channel Nine’s TODAY show. “It’s no use fining him – he just says, ‘Well I can afford to pay the fine, why should I worry about it?’

“For the women, it’s just so disgraceful. To Donna, it is so demeaning for her, and I think that it doesn’t encourage women to come into the sport, certainly not the junior girls if they’re going to put up with that.”