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Woodies' partnership ends with silver Latest: Thursday October 12, 2000 02:47 PM
SYDNEY, Australia (CNNSI.com) -- Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge of Australia settled for a silver medal Wednesday at the Sydney Games. The most famous doubles team in tennis lost their final match together. The No. 1 seed fell 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (2) to Canadians Daniel Nestor and Sebastien Lareau. Fittingly, the Woodies shared in the failure. Woodforde misplayed two easy shots in the tiebreaker, and Woodbridge double-faulted on the final two points. Then they hugged at the net as a crowd of 8,000 gave them a roaring send-off. "I'm not disappointed about the loss," a red-eyed Woodbridge said. "I'm just emotional because it's over." "It's a silver medal today, but our partnership has been gold," Woodforde added. The two Aussies played together so long that many fans thought of them as one. Woodforde is the left-hander with the red hair, Woodbridge the right-hander with the hat. Their first match together was a loss at New Haven, Conn., in 1990. Then came a record 61 titles, including 11 Grand Slam tournaments and a gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics. They're still ranked No. 1 in the world, and this year they won their first French Open title and their sixth Wimbledon championship. The partnership is being dissolved because Woodforde, who turned 35 last week, plans to retire at the end of the year. "The 1,000-percent commitment just wasn't there," he said. "It's hard to keep up with all the young guys who want to kick your butt all the time." Woodbridge, 29, plans to play doubles next year with Swede Jonas Bjorkman. "It's going to be like learning to walk again," Woodbridge said. The emotion of the impending parting has left the two Aussies crying more than once this year, usually after big victories. But their unique friendship will continue because while tennis brought them together, they share other interests -- golf, good food and red wine among them. "When we had time off we would go our separate ways, because you spend 35 weeks a year traveling together," Woodbridge said. "Now we'll actually go on holidays together."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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