The Woodies was the nickname given to the

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

doubles pairing of Australians Todd Woodbridge 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 join ...

, one of the most successful pairings in tennis history. The Woodies combined Woodforde's left-handed baseline play with Woodbridge's right-handed net skills. They were the ATP Doubles Team of the Year five times, and won 61 ATP doubles titles. The pair won eleven

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

titles: one

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

, two

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

s, two US Opens, and a record six Wimbledons. They also won two Tour Finals titles in

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

and

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

. Representing Australia, the Woodies won an Olympic gold medal for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. They often played for Australia in the

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

, including in three finals. In

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

, they helped Australia to its first Davis Cup victory in 13 years. The pairing ended in 2000, when Woodforde retired from professional tennis. Woodbridge continued his doubles success with Jonas Björkman, until Björkman ended the partnership in 2004; Woodbridge then partnered with Mahesh Bhupathi of

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before retiring himself in 2005. The Woodies were inducted into the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame on

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in January 2010. Their bronzed statues were placed with those of other Australian tennis greats at Melbourne Park, site of the Australian Open.

Doubles titles (61)

Runners-up (18)

Team competition titles (1)

Runners-up (1)

Doubles performance timeline

*² held in Stockholm 1990–94, Essen in 1995

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodies, The Australian male tennis players Nicknamed groups of tennis players Nicknamed groups of Olympic competitors Tennis doubles teams