Greg Rusedski crashed out of the Samsung Open at the Brighton Centre last night.

He tossed away a 3-0 lead to lose 7-6, 6-3 in the first round against American Paul Goldstein.

It was a miserable end to an injury-ravaged year for the British No. 2 and destroyed hopes of a semi-final showdown for the sixth seed on Saturday against Tim Henman.

Rusedski, also beaten by Goldstein in the 1999 Australian Open, admitted: "It's quite nice to be done with this year.

"There wasn't much in it, just two or three points here and there, but you have to give credit to Paul.

"Maybe I can have the consolation of winning the doubles, as I did in this tournament last year."

Rusedski contributed to his downfall with a double fault in the first set tie break, which he lost 7-4. Goldstein made the all-important break in the sixth game of the second set to win in 77 minutes.

Rusedski, who had foot surgery last December, starts work on Monday at Queen's Club in London with new coach and former Wimbledon champ Pat Cash.

"I will be working on getting my game back to what it was before and improving it," Rusedski said.

"He has got an academy near Brisbane and I am looking forward to going down there. It will be great preparation for the Australian Open.

"Everyone starts at zero next year and thank God for that."

Goldstein faces Italian qualifier Renzo Furlan in the second round today.

American Chris Woodruff set up a probable quarter-final clash against top seed Henman with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 victory against Rusedski's German doubles partner Marc Goellner.

Henman plays his second round match against Dutchman Raemon Sluiter tonight.