Former World No.1 and defending champion, Lleyton Hewitt, disappointed local fans by losing the first-round encounter of the Brisbane International 2015 on Tuesday.

84^th-ranked Hewitt looked rusty throughout his 3-6, 2-6 thrashing from the hands of fellow Australian, Sam Groth, and will now apprehend a big fall in his rankings.

“I just didn’t play solid enough games those early games of each set,” a dejected Hewitt was quoted as saying by the ATP World Tour.

Meanwhile, lanky South African Kevin Anderson also crashed out of the tournament after going down 6-7, 4-6 to Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot in the other opening-round encounter.

MEN’S SINGLES FIRST ROUND RESULTS

(W) J Millman d. (Q) R Williams (6-3, 6-1)

J Nieminen d. (Q) D Kudla (4-6, 6-1, 6-4)

M Klizan d. J Melzer (6-7, 7-6, 6-1)

(7) A Dolgopolov d. C Berlocq (6-2, 6-3)

(Q) L Kubot d. (5) K Anderson (7-6, 6-4)

S Groth d. L Hewitt (6-3, 6-2)

M Kukushkin d. (Q) M Copil (6-4, 4-6, 6-4)

S Johnson d. M Matosevic (2-6, 7-6, 7-5)

MEN’S DOUBLES FIRST ROUND RESULTS

M Raonic/Bernard Tomic d. P Herbert/N Mahut (6-4, 2-0 ret.)

(W) G Dimitrov/T Kokkinakis d. J Chardy/L Kubot (6-3, 3-6, 10-8)

(3) R Lindstedt/M Matkowski d. M Fyrstenberg/S Gonzalez (6-2, 6-3)

 (Image: www.brisbaneinternational.com.au)