Defending champion Andy Murray has been beaten in straights sets in his opening round match at the Montreal Masters.

Murray lost 6-3, 6-1 against South African Kevin Anderson, a man ranked 31 places below him in the world.

The world number four was hoping for a third straight title in the Rogers Cup.

"Sometimes you can make mistakes with your preparation, but I've done pretty similar stuff to what I've always done coming in here. It's just a really bad day," Murray said.

"I just felt very slow. Today I couldn't get anything going. I started both sets really, really badly which doesn't help against someone that serves like Kevin.

"Every time he came to the net, I was a bit late getting to the ball," he added.

"I was getting behind very early in all of the rallies and didn't move particularly well."

Murray served five double faults and plenty of unforced errors, in a match that lasted just an hour and ten minutes.