Unable to play at his best, he will return to court tomorrow when he and partner Alfie Hewett start the defence of their doubles title.

“I don’t want to make excuses, but I’ve spent an hour on court in the last week and today I couldn’t hit any of my spots and was so off," he said.

"I’ll recover as well as I can and come back for the dopbles and hopefully be able to perform a little bit better.

"I had so many chances in that first set to put away easy balls and there were a lot of double faults towards the end of the set.”

Gordon and Alfie will start their quest for a third successive Australian Open title when the 13-time Grand Slam-winning partnership face Tom Egberink of the Netherlands and Ben Weekes of Australia.

• Photo courtesy LTA.