The world number one said he was shattered by his 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 fourth-round defeat but could see that it might benefit him in the long run.

"It's really disappointing, there's no other way of putting it, but hopefully I am going to have a lot more opportunities, and that's the way I have to look at it," Hewitt said.

"It's tough at the moment but I'm not going to get too dejected about it.

"It could make me a bigger, stronger person when I come back to play in the years to come."

The 21-year-old Hewitt went into the match as a red-hot favourite but could not find a way past El Aynaoui's booming serve.

The big Moroccan aced him 33 times and was not broken at any time in the match.

"It wasn't bad luck that I lost, I just played an opponent who was better than me on the day," Hewitt said.

"When I look back on this match in a couple of days or a couple of weeks ... I can honestly say that I fought as hard as I could out there.

"I felt like I played pretty well and I had a lot of chances, but to his credit, he just served huge. I couldn't get any rhythm on my returns. He was too good."

Hewitt won the U.S. Open in 2001 and Wimbledon last year but says the Australian Open is the tournament he craves the most.

No Australian man has won the tournament since Mark Edmondson in 1976 and hopes were high that Hewitt could end the national drought.

Although the Rebound Ace courts should suit Hewitt's game, the Australian Open has been his worst grand slam and he has failed to make it past the fourth round in each of his seven visits to Melbourne Park.

He said there was also some extra pressure on him to perform well in Melbourne, but that had nothing to do with his defeat.

"The pressure and expectation is a lot more ... but whenever you're a top player in a grand slam there is always pressure and expectation," he said.

"I just try to block it out as much as possible and use it as a positive rather than a negative."