Claims of questionable sportsmanship and lack of commitment were traded back-and-forth on Twitter after Stakhovsky retired hurt with the score in Groth's favour 4-6 7-5 5-3.
The Ukrainian claimed a back injury forced his withdrawal and that the reason he didn't retire earlier was because of Groth's failure to break in the third set.
Unfortunately today after 1st set my back started to get tight..and by the 3rd it was gone..I was waiting for Sam to break so I can retire.
— Sergiy Stakhovsky (@Stako_tennis) June 9, 2015
Dear tweeters please file ur complains @SamGrothTennis ,he had 1/0 0/40 in the 3rd.. Ain't my fault 😂😂😂😂
— Sergiy Stakhovsky (@Stako_tennis) June 9, 2015
Groth, who is openly against players retiring rather than finishing out the match, fired a salvo back at Stakhovsky.
For all wondering, had I managed to break at 1-0 0/40 @Stako_tennis would have retired then, my bad for not getting it done earlier haha
— Sam Groth (@SamGrothTennis) June 9, 2015
Stakhovsky put himself on the tennis world's radar after knocking Roger Federer out of the 2013 Wimbledon tournament in the second round.
It was Groth's sixth successive win on grass with his preparations coming along nicely for WImbledon's June 29 start.
The 27-year-old big-serving Aussie will now face third seed Feliciano Lopez in the second round.
Joining Groth in the second round was compatriot Bernard Tomic, who overcame German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3 7-6 (7-5).
In other Aussie action, Casey Dellacqua progessed with a 7-5 6-3 victory over Sesil Karatantcheva at the AEGON Open in Nottingham, while Jarmila Gajdosova and Alja Tomljanovic crashed out.
Lleyton Hewitt was also beaten, going down 6-3 6-4 to Nicholas Mahut at the TopShelf Open in 's-Hertogenbosh.