Once Lleyton Hewitt contracted chickenpox two weeks ago there was little chance he was going to win this year's Australian Open whatever he, his family or his advisers had supposed. Even so it came as a shock to the nation that the 20-year-old world number one from Adelaide went out in the first round.

Though the disease is generally not serious at his age, the body still has to fight hard to repel the invader. Just how hard the Australian discovered after only one set yesterday when he "hit the wall" and went on to defeat against Spain's Alberto Martin 1-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 in just over three and a half hours of slog. So, inside two days, the men's event has lost its top three seeds: Hewitt, Gustavo Kuerten and Andre Agassi, the last not even getting started.

More than 42,000, the Open's largest ever crowd, surged into Melbourne Park hoping to catch at least a glimpse of what many still believed would be Hewitt's opening win on the way to becoming the first Australian to take the men's title since Mark Edmondson in 1976.

As it was, by joining Kuerten in the dumping ground Hewitt helped equal a little piece of unwanted history. The only other time in the Open era that the two top men's seeds have lost in the first round was at the 1990 French Open when Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker were toppled.

Hewitt also became the first number one seed to lose in the first round here since 1968, when the Open era began.

Controversy continues to stick to Hewitt, and he had harsh words for his conqueror after Martin, leading 5-4 in the fourth-set tie-break, called for the trainer because he was cramping, although he managed to walk to the umpire's chair to make his request without evident difficulty.

It was within the rules, for a player can call a time-out if suffering from cramp at any stage of a match, even in the middle of a game. But for many, not least Hewitt, it smacked of gamesmanship.

"I had problems with my legs earlier in the match," said Hewitt, "and asked for the trainer but said I would wait until the change of ends. I thik it was a shocker at 5-4 in the tie-break. I still had to win the set, and then win another, but it would have definitely made my chances a lot easier if we had played fair." The clear implication was that Martin, the world number 39, had not.

"Someone has to put their balls on the line, one of the refs or somebody, otherwise people are going to take advantage like he did today," added Hewitt.

Although Martin was not himself involved, there was a Spanish-Australian animosity at play here with Australians still feeling they were cheated out of winning the Davis Cup in 2000 in Barcelona, Hewitt being part of that team.

Martin protested his innocence: "The rules are rules." So they are, however daft, but their spirit is another matter and his calling the trainer took much of the gloss off his victory, which he completed after three-minutes' treatment by taking the next two points to win the tie-break 7-4.

Not for the first time Hewitt looked to have been badly advised, despite his understandable desire to play. He admitted that, had it been any other event, he would not have entered. He is not popular with the Australian papers and he had refused to speak to them since contracting chickenpox.

He is not aided by his frequently dilatory management company Octagon, while his parents Glynn and Cherilyn call the shots, resulting in the recent dismissal of the coach Darren Cahill, who has been replaced by the more malleable Jason Stoltenberg. In the press room there were many large Australian smiles when he lost.

Hewitt blamed his health for finding himself in such a hole.

"I'm not Superman," he stated. "I was struggling out there and at the end of the first set I started to feel tired. I tried to hit a lot of winners, but it's a lot slower out there and the balls are heavier this year. God knows why.

"It was a dogfight for me, but I'm not as disappointed as in other matches because I knew I wasn't 100 per cent."