Pat Rafter's semi-comeback tour is being played strictly on a one night only basis, with the dual US Open champion's doubles team losing in the first round of the Australian Open.

Rafter and partner Josh Eagle were beaten 6-2 7-5 by South African duo Jeff Coetzee and Chris Haggard, begging the question whether the most popular Australian player of the modern game would ever be sighted at a grand slam again.

The loss comes in the wake of the Queenslanders losing their opening match in a lead-up tournament in Adelaide and an exhibition match at Kooyong last week.

The loss comes in the wake of the Queenslanders losing their opening matches in lead-up tournaments in Adelaide and at Kooyong.

While Rafter's career record dwarfed the other three players combined, he was an underdog against an experienced duo.

Coetzee and Haggard made the semi-finals here last year, only losing to eventual champions Fabrice Santoro and Michael Llodra.

By contrast, Rafter and Eagle had failed to harmonise as a team and were both broken in their opening service games to put a huge dent in their confidence levels.

Eagle in particular was guilty of some bad errors as the South Africans played sharp tennis en route to taking the first set.

The second set hinged on a marathon 10th game of the second set when there were six deuces, and the South Africans saved four set points on Haggard's serve.

In a consistent pattern throughout the game, Haggard would hold and then Eagle would be broken - he held serve just once in five attempts - and it was repeated at this critical stage, enabling the South Africans to serve out the match.

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