Mark Woodforde's sad revelation about relationship with Todd Woodbridge
The famous 'Woodies' duo won 11 grand slam doubles titles together, but aren't on the best of terms anymore.
Mark Woodforde has opened up about his fractured relationship with fellow Aussie tennis great Todd Woodbridge, saying their falling out 'absolutely cuts' him. The famous 'Woodies' duo won 11 grand slam doubles titles together, as well as 61 ATP titles, the Davis Cup and an Olympic gold medal.
However the pair have suffered a sad falling out in recent years, with Woodforde revealing he doesn't really speak to Woodbridge anymore. Speaking on the 'Soda Room podcast' with Mark Soderstrom, Woodforde elaborated on his strained relationship with his former doubles partner.
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“We don’t have a lot to talk about these days,” Woodforde said. “I would love to be able to play some more of the legends events together, but it’s just at a position … it is where it is right now.
“For someone you could rely upon for as many years and have great fun and success and joy with, to be at this stage now, it’s really hurtful. I’m still the same person.”
Woodforde revealed his hurt in 2020 that Woodbridge had decided to team up with Jonas Bjorkman on the legends tour instead of him. Woodbridge won a further five grand slam titles with Bjorkman after Woodforde retired.
“It’s probably one of the greatest quandaries right now. I wish Todd and I were in a better place. We haven’t spoken for some time,” Woodforde said in 2020.
“Todd’s elected to move on and play with Jonas Bjorkman in some of the legends doubles events, who he played with once I retired. He developed a partnership with Jonas and they had success together, but not anywhere near on the same level as the Woodies.
“I guess the Woodies drifted into the background for him and he’s developing his own brand. So it’s disappointing for me, I still play the legends events so it’s kind of a head scratcher to turn up and we’re not playing together. There’s bits and pieces there which I’m sure we both share in, but I hope some day that we can be on better terms than where we are now.”
Todd Woodbridge insists he's still close with Mark Woodforde
Woodbridge later told Channel 9: “It’s improbable that we could ever be separated by everything that we’ve done together on the court. The Woodies is a household name in Australia. If the Australian public, and Mark in particular, wants to see us back together, we’ve got to make it happen.”
When asked directly in an interview with the Herald Sun “are you and Woodforde still close?", Woodbridge replied “yes”. “We are good friends and what we achieved together is very special. We don’t work a lot together or spend a huge amount of time together. We are very different characters and we live in different countries these days,” he added.
The ‘Woodies’ first teamed up in 1990 and didn't initially find success. However they quickly turned things around and went on to become Aussie icons.
“The first tournament we didn’t do so well. It was abysmal … we lost first round. We got our butts kicked so badly we were thinking ‘yeah, there’s nothing really here between us’,” Woodforde said.
“But the second tournament, that very first match, we beat a seeded team. There was something there. We just kind of walked off and we were like ‘hey, this is pretty good.’
“We actually changed back to our original sides, me being the left-hander on the ad(vantage) court, Todd the righty on the first court. It just flowed. It flowed for a number of other matches that week.
"We ended up losing in the semis, which wasn’t a bad loss. But our coach and a trainer at the time, they saw something on the sidelines as well.”
Tennis fans have expressed their sadness on social media after Woodbridge's latest comments. Some described the situation as a 'shame' and 'tragedy'.
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