But in his first tournament back, he was impressive in reaching the final of the ATP Championships in Mason, Ohio, where he lost to Michael Chang last Sunday.

Washington aggravated a previous back injury during a match in the ATP Championship at Cincinnati this week.

More directly, on the issue of the Grand Slam Cup, he added 'I think it will replace The Masters (the ATP Championships finals).

The descent hit its 1993 nadir when he went 0-3 at the ATP Championships, the event where he outraged the establishment - but fascinated his peers - by electing to read during change-overs.

But he reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, where he was the defending champion, and extended Michael Chang, the eventual winner, to three sets in the semifinals of the ATP Championships on Sunday.

In their first meeting in 1996, Daniel Vacek quickly bounced Alex Corretja, then a 22-year-old clay-court specialist, out of the opening round of the ATP Championship in Cincinnati.

For the last six years, when the ATP Championship was held farther south in Frankfurt, Becker was the beneficiary of overwhelming crowd support during every match.

On his 27th birthday, Pete Sampras scored a 6-4, 6-2 victory yesterday over Martin Damm in the second round of the ATP Championship in Mason, Ohio.

The 30-year-old Swede was beaten in the first round of last week's ATP Championship in Cincinnati.

In previous years, he and Becker have played four times in round-robin matches at the ATP Championships.