Indian Wells: Australia’s Nick Kyrgios pulled out of the ATP Indian Wells tournament on Friday with an elbow injury.

Kyrgios, who was seeded 17th in Indian Wells, withdrew ahead of his opening second round match against Russian Danil Medvedev.

“Nick Kyrgios has withdrawn from the BNP Paribas Open with the elbow injury that forced him to withdraw from several tournaments leading up to the BNP Paribas Open,” tournament spokesman Tom Barnes said.

“The injury does not affect his ground strokes but severely affects his serve.” Kyrgios was replaced in the draw by lucky loser Matteo Berrettini. Unseeded Gael Monfils rolled to an easy 6-3, 6-3 victory over Aussie Matthew Ebden in his opening match on Friday. The 31-year-old Frenchman needed just 71 minutes to dispatch Ebden.

Monfils began 2018 by claiming his seventh career ATP Title in Doha, but this is the first time he has come into Indian Wells unseeded in the men’s draw since 2008.

Monfils hammered six aces, won 68 per cent of his first serve points and broke Ebden four times.

Monfils improved to 2-0 lifetime over Ebden having beaten him previously at the 2010 Australian Open.

Monfils will face world No. 18 John Isner in the second round. The Frenchman has beaten Isner five times in nine career meetings, including winning four of their past five.

Their most recent encounter took place a year ago in the California desert, with Monfils winning easily 6-2, 6-4 to reach the third round.

Indian Wells marks the first time playing on hard courts for Monfils since the Australian Open in January. He is coming off four straight weeks on the South American clay court circuit so needed to make the necessary adjustments.

“The ball was flying quite a lot. It was not easy to adapt but today I was just lucky to get the win and in straight sets is always good. I will be focused for the next one,” Monfils said.

In other men’s matches on Friday, Felix Auger-Aliassime, who is the youngest player in the draw at 18 years, seven months, defeated Vasek Pospisil 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) in an all-Canadian second round matchup.

Portugal’s Joao Sousa rallied to beat Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).