Murray is still in the doubles with his brother Jamie

The 19-year-old Briton, who had a bye through the first round, went down 6-3 7-6 (7-1) to 31-year-old Novak.

Murray fought back from 4-1 down in the second set but was no match for the Czech in the tie-break.

"Every single young player goes through a patch where he's not playing well," said fourth seed Murray.

It's not like I lost to bad players Andy Murray

"You can't expect to get to the semi-finals every week - unless you're Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal.

"They are the only two who can do it. I wasn't looking that far ahead."

Murray lost to Tim Henman in his opening match in Bangkok last week.

"It's not like I lost to bad players," said Murray. "Henman has been at the top of the game for a long time. Novak was number five in the world (in 2002).

"I did well to fight back into the match but unfortunately I couldn't quite turn it around."

Roger Federer made a sluggish start in his first tour event since winning the US Open last month, beating Serbian qualifier Viktor Troicki 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-3).

"It was a really tough match," said Federer. "I didn't know his game. I've never seen him play and it always takes time to figure a player out.

"I couldn't get a read on his serve, he mixed it up well. This was my first match of the tournament so I wanted to play it safe and get a rhythm."

Second seed Tommy Robredo beat Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan 6-4 6-1 while Croatian number three seed Mario Ancic recorded a simple 6-1 6-4 victory over Kenneth Carlsen.