‘Woodies’ May Be Best Pair in Tennis History

It’s a sparkling, breezy day here by the sea, but Mark Woodforde is scowling.

“I played very, very, very poorly,” he says. “And when that happens, you go down.”

Woodforde, the ATP Tour’s 53rd-ranked singles player, has just lost his Friday quarterfinal match to New Zealander Brett Steven at the Miller Lite Hall of Fame Tennis Championship. Woodforde, a red-headed Australian, is not someone who loses often or easily--especially to the world’s 90th-ranked player. Especially, 0-6, 0-6.

Fortunately for Woodforde, he has a day job. He is half of the doubles team considered by many to be the best in tennis history.

A week ago that Woodforde and doubles partner Todd Woodbridge won their fifth consecutive Wimbledon title. The reigning champions of The Phoenix/ATP Tour World Doubles Championship are ranked No.1 in the world and already have qualified for the 1997 event at the Civic Center in November.

Their 30th consecutive victory at the All England Club created all kinds of revisions to the record book. The Woodies:

--Equaled the Wimbledon record of five consecutive titles set by brothers Laurie and Reggie Doherty (1897-1901).

--Won their 44th doubles title, tying Sergio Casal and Emilio Sanchez for third all time.

--Are the only team in the Open Era (since 1968) to win at least one Grand Slam title six years in a row and have won nine Grand Slams.

Woodforde and Woodbridge defeated the Dutch team of Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (9-7), 5-7, 6-3 in a spirited Wimbledon final. Still, the Woodies had a 5-3 lead in the third set with Woodbridge serving at 40-0. Woodbridge’s post-match comments suggested that history constantly weighs on their minds.

“It feels great for me (to win) because having led 40-0 and losing that game, it’s quite devastating to think you’re on the verge of creating a modern-day record and then blowing it,” Woodbridge said.

Woodforde, who has an acute sense of history off the court, said he wasn’t thinking about the record during the match.

“No,” he said. “I guess at that stage I thought it was finished. Todd was very tight; maybe he was thinking about what we were about to achieve. You lose that third set, and you get concerned.

“Doubles is built on momentum, and the match turned -- just like that. The thing you have to do is stop the flow. Thankfully, we were able to stop the bleeding.”

Not only are the Woodies and Eltingh-Haarhuis ranked No.1 and No.2 on the ATP Tour, they are the two best teams of the 1990s. The Woodies lead the series 8-6, and most of the recent matches have come in important events.

Last year, the Woodies prevailed in an Olympic semifinal, winning the deciding third set, 18-16. Then they won two tiebreakers for the U.S. Open title. At The Phoenix/ATP Tour World Doubles Championship, the Woodies beat the Dutchmen again.

As Woodforde, 31, and Woodbridge, 26, hugged on Centre Court at Wimbledon, Woodforde screamed, “Five! Five! Can you believe we’ve won five titles?”

Well, that’s the G-rated version, according to Woodforde.

“Actually, I was swearing my head off,” he said.

Back in the locker room, there was the deep satisfaction of peer recognition. Some of the few people who fully appreciated what they had done -- fellow Australians Ken Rosewall (32 singles titles, 18 doubles), Fred Stolle (13 doubles titles), Darren Cahill (two singles titles) -- said, again and again, “The record’s never going to be bloody broken.”

Which raises a troublesome point the Woodies are -- forgive them -- a bit keen on.

“It’s great to be put down in the record book,” Woodforde said. “But I think there should be an asterisk next to the Dohertys’ record. I’m not being disrespectful, but the custom back then was the defending champion had an automatic bye to the final. They called it the challenge round.

“Basically, they only had to win one match -- and that’s kind of farcical, don’t you think? Really, I don’t think people really understand what we’ve done. To win five straight, that’s an amazing achievement.

“The way doubles is going -- it’s becoming more and more a poor relation to singles -- the record may last forever.”

Well, technically, five consecutive Wimbledon titles isn’t the record. It equals the Dohertys’ record.

“Right,” Woodforde said. “We’ll just have to win six.”