Goran can't help Boris recall past glories

Former Wimbledon winner Boris Becker and current champion Goran Ivanisevic teamed up at the Masters Series event in Cincinnati, but they were quickly beaten 6-3, 6-2 by Todd Woodbridge of Australia and Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden.

"Unfortunately, we played against the best doubles team in the world, so there wasn't really much we could do together," Becker said.

The German was returning to the Cincinnati tournament that he won in 1985 when he was 17, the same year he won Wimbledon for the first of his three titles. He retired from tennis in 1999 and said he had scarcely touched a racket since then.

Ivanisevic thought he let down Becker in his return to the court. "I didn't play the perfect match. Boris comes back and I play a bad match," he said.

"I am sorry. I hope I recover tomorrow for my singles match." Ivanisevic was due to play Nicolas Escude of France later today.

The Croat, who plans to have a shoulder operation later this year, said: "Hopefully next year I'm still going to play. Who knows? If I feel fine, I play. If not, I leave."

Ninth seed Pete Sampras, a threetime champion at Cincinnati, made it through the first round with a 6-3, 6-2 win against Nicolas Lapentti, but defending champion Thomas Enqvist was upset 6-4, 6-0 by Nicolas Kiefer.