Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Todd Woodbridge Todd Andrew Woodbridge, OAM (born 2 April 1971) is an Australian former professional tennis player and current sports broadcaster with the Nine Network. Woodbridge is best known for his successful Doubles partnerships with Mark Woodforde (n ...

and

Mark Woodforde Mark Raymond Woodforde, OAM (born 23 September 1965) is a former professional tennis player from Australia. He is best known as one half of "The Woodies", a doubles partnership with Todd Woodbridge. Woodforde was born in Adelaide, and joined ...

defeated

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

Neil Broad Neil Broad (born 20 November 1966) is a former professional tennis player who represented Great Britain for most of his playing career. He is a former UK number 1 who won seven ATP tour doubles titles in his career, and won the silver medal in ...

and

Tim Henman Timothy Henry Henman (born 6 September 1974) is a British former professional tennis player. Henman played a serve-and-volley style of tennis. He was the first British man to reach the singles semifinals of Wimbledon since Roger Taylor in the ...

in the final, 6–4, 6–4, 6–2 to win the gold medal in Men's Doubles

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

. It was the fourth of five components

the Woodies The Woodies was the nickname given to the tennis doubles pairing of Australians Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, one of the most successful pairings in tennis history. The Woodies combined Woodforde's left-handed baseline play with Woodbr ...

needed for the

career Golden Slam The Grand Slam in tennis is the achievement of winning all four major championships in one discipline in a calendar year, also referred to as the "Calendar-year Grand Slam" or "Calendar Slam". In doubles, a team may accomplish the Grand Slam p ...

; they would later win the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

to complete the achievement. It was Australia's first official medal in the event, though Australian player

Edwin Flack Edwin Harold Flack (5 November 1873 – 10 January 1935) was an Australian athlete and tennis player. Also known as "Teddy", he was Australia's first Olympian, being its only representative in 1896, and the first Olympic champion in the ...

was a member of a mixed team that won bronze in the 1896 event. Great Britain earned its first medal in the men's doubles since 1924. In the bronze medal match,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Marc-Kevin Goellner Marc-Kevin Peter Goellner (born 22 September 1970) is a former professional tennis player from Germany. He won two singles titles, achieved a Bronze medal in doubles at the 1996 Summer Olympics and attained a career-high singles ranking of Worl ...

and

David Prinosil David Prinosil ( cz, David Přinosil; born 9 March 1973) is a former tennis player from Germany, who turned professional in 1991. Prinosil was born in Olomouc, Czechoslovakia, but later moved to Germany. He represented his country at the 1996 ...

defeated the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Jacco Eltingh Jacco Folkert Eltingh (born 29 August 1970) is a former professional male tennis player and former world No. 1 doubles player from the Netherlands. He is best known for his success in doubles with fellow countryman Paul Haarhuis. Together they ...

and

Paul Haarhuis Paul Vincent Nicholas Haarhuis (born 19 February 1966) is a Dutch former professional tennis player. He is a former world No. 1 doubles player, having reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 18 in November 1995. He won six Grand Sla ...

, 6–2, 7–5. It was Germany's second consecutive medal in the event. The tournament was held from 25 July to 2 August at the

Stone Mountain Tennis Center The Stone Mountain Tennis Center was a tennis venue at Stone Mountain Park in Stone Mountain, Georgia, USA. It was built to host the tennis events for the 1996 Summer Olympics and the 1996 Summer Paralympics, at a total cost of $22 million. At th ...

, in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

of the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. There were 31 pairs from 31 nations, with each nation limited to one pair (two players),though the pair from Uzbekistan did not start.

Background

This was the 10th appearance of men's doubles tennis. The event has been held at every Summer Olympics where tennis has been on the program: from 1896 to 1924 and then from 1988 to the current program. A demonstration event was held in 1968. This was the first Olympics at which

and

played together. Woodbridge had played with John Fitzgerald in 1992. Since pairing with Woodforde, the Australians had won four consecutive Wimbledone titles. They were heavy favorites in the Olympic tournament. 1992 silver medalist

Wayne Ferreira Wayne Richard Ferreira (born 15 September 1971) is a South African former professional tennis player and current tennis coach. Career As a junior player, Ferreira was ranked world no. 1 junior doubles player and no. 6 junior singles player. He ...

of South Africa returned, this time paired with (unrelated)

Ellis Ferreira Ellis Ferreira (born 19 February 1970) is a former professional male tennis player from South Africa. He played collegiately at the University of Alabama, earning all-SEC and all-American honors. Ferreira competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in ...

rather than

Piet Norval Pieter ("Piet") Norval (born 7 April 1970) is a former tennis player from South Africa, who turned professional in 1988. His most notable achievement was winning the mixed doubles at the French Open in 1999. The right-hander represented his nat ...

. Bronze medalist

Javier Frana Javier Alberto Frana (born 25 December 1966) is a former tennis player from Argentina and former tennis commentator for ESPN Latin America. He won 1996 French Open Mixed Doubles title with compatriot Patricia Tarabini. Tennis career Frana turn ...

of Argentina also returned with a new partner,

Luis Lobo Luis Lobo (born 9 November 1970) is a retired professional male tennis player from Argentina, who won the gold medal in the men's doubles competition at the 1995 Pan American Games. He reached his career high doubles ranking, World No. 12, on ...

. Chinese Taipei, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, the Ivory Coast, Slovakia, and Venezuela each made their debut in the event. Great Britain made its eighth appearance in the event, most of any nation.

Competition format

The competition was a single-elimination tournament. A bronze medal match was reintroduced after not being held in 1988 or 1992. All matches except the final were best-of-three sets, down from best-of-five in previous Games; the final remained best-of-five. Tiebreaks were used for any set before the third that reached 6–6.

Schedule

All times are

Eastern Daylight Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small por ...

( UTC-4)

Seeds

Draw

Finals

Top half

Bottom half

References

ITF Olympic Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tennis at the 1996 Summer Olympics - Men's doubles

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

Men's Doubles Men's events at the 1996 Summer Olympics