Kyle Edmund knocked out by Dudi Sela in Indian Wells

Edmund, who has been out of action with a hip injury since his brilliant performance in Melbourne, led 3-1 in the opening set in Indian Wells and had two break points to go further ahead.

However, world number 97 Sela dug deep to hold serve and immediately broke Edmund to get back on level terms before another break in the 10th game secured the set.

Sela also took the second set by the same score to seal a 6-4 6-4 victory in 91 minutes against world number 24 Edmund, who replaced the injured Andy Murray as British number one earlier this month.

"It's good to be back on court," Edmund said after the match, despite the result. "It's been about six weeks since I last played, and it's not ideal to have that long off at this stage of the year, and that's it basically - just time away from the court and a larger time away from the match court. Obviously it takes you a while to get back into things.

"There's no stress in terms of I did really well at the start of the year. It's not like I'm chasing a lot of points.

"The reality is I've had pretty much six weeks away from court and have only been properly training for three weeks."