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 ...

's 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 ...

defeated

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

's Neil Broad and Tim Henman in the final, 6–4, 6–4, 6–2 to win the gold medal in Men's Doubles

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 ...

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 needed for the career Golden Slam; they would later win the

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 ...

to complete the achievement. It was Australia's first official medal in the event, though Australian player Edwin Flack 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 lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

's Marc-Kevin Goellner and David Prinosil defeated the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

' Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis, 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, in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

of the

United States of America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...

. 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 Todd Woodbridge 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 tennis coach and a former professional player. Ferreira won 15 ATP singles titles and 11 doubles titles. His career-high rankings were world No. 6 in singles (in May 1995) and ...

of South Africa returned, this time paired with (unrelated) Ellis Ferreira rather than Piet Norval. Bronze medalist Javier Frana of Argentina also returned with a new partner, Luis Lobo. 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 final set 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, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behin ...

( UTC-4)

Seeds

Draw

Finals

Top half

Bottom half

References

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

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 ...

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