Todd Woodbridge

Todd Andrew Woodbridge, OAM (born 2 April 1971) is an Australian former professional tennis player and current personality of the Nine Network, working as a broadcaster for Wide World of Sports and host of game show Tipping Point Australia.

Woodbridge is best known for his successful Doubles partnerships with Mark Woodforde (nicknamed "The Woodies") and later Jonas Björkman.

His nickname was “a little bit wet”.

He is among the most successful doubles players of all time, having won 16 Grand Slam men's doubles titles (nine Wimbledons, three US Opens, three Australian Opens and one French Open), and a further six Grand Slam mixed doubles titles (three US Opens, one French Open, one Wimbledon, one Australian Open).

In juniors, Woodbridge made the finals of the Jr Australian Open in 1987 and 1989, and Wimbledon in 1989.

He did however have the distinction of being one of only seven players to beat Sampras at Wimbledon, knocking him out in the first round in 1989 (Sampras's first ever Wimbledon match).

He is best known as one of the top doubles players in the world for most of the 1990s and into the early 2000s (decade).

His primary doubles partnerships were first with fellow Australian Mark Woodforde and later with Swede Jonas Björkman.

Woodbridge and Woodforde are often referred to as "The Woodies" in the tennis world.

Woodbridge reached the World No. 1 doubles ranking in July 1992.

Additionally, he was a gold medalist with Woodforde at the 1996 Summer Olympics to complete a career Golden Slam.

In total he has won 83 ATP doubles titles.

Woodforde and Woodbridge won a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and reached the final to win a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

In the fourth set tie-breaker against Canadians Sébastien Lareau and Daniel Nestor, Woodbridge served a double fault to lose the match.

Woodbridge was awarded the Medal of the Order of the Australia in the 1997 Australia Day Honours "for service to sport as gold medallist at the Atlanta Olympic Games, 1996".

Woodbridge also had a career high singles ranking of 19 after reaching the semifinals of Wimbledon in 1997, beating Michael Chang, Marcos Ondruska, Alex Rădulescu, Patrick Rafter and Nicolas Kiefer before losing to Pete Sampras.

After Woodforde retired from the tour in 2000, Woodbridge established a partnership with Björkman that resulted in five Grand Slam titles in four years.

In 2002, he was inducted into the Australian Institute of Sport 'Best of the Best'.

At the end of 2004, Björkman ended his partnership with Woodbridge.

According to an interview Woodbridge granted to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Björkman wanted him to play more weeks on the tour, but Woodbridge wanted to limit his time away from his family as much as possible.

Woodbridge then took on India's Mahesh Bhupathi as his new partner, who had just been dumped by Belarusian Max Mirnyi.

Coincidentally, Björkman and Mirnyi ended up partnering together.

Woodbridge announced his retirement at the 2005 Wimbledon Championships after 17 years as a tennis professional and 83 ATP tournament doubles titles, an all-time record at the time now surpassed by the Bryan brothers.

He was a member of the Australian Davis Cup Team, playing the most ties (32) of any player.

According to the ATP website, he finished his career with US$10,095,245 in prize money.

Woodbridge was a personality of the Seven Network from 2006 to 2018, working for Seven Sport as a tennis analyst/commentator/host on the network's summer of tennis coverage, including the Australian Open.

He also became an ambassador for bowel cancer awareness group "Let's Beat Bowel Cancer".

A Cabrini Health initiative.

In 2007, he competed on the sixth season of Dancing with the Stars Australia, being the fourth contestant eliminated on 20 March that year.

In 2008 and 2009, Woodbridge aligned himself closely to the sailing community through his commitments at Hamilton Island Race Week hosting tennis clinics and wine tasting events.

In 2008, he presented the History Channel's special "The History of Australian Sport: Tennis", a documentary looking back at Australia's love affair with the roots of the Grand Slam of the Asia Pacific.

Woodbridge served as the tournament director for the 2009 Australian Open legends event.

In July 2009, he was appointed coach of the Australian Davis Cup Team, taking on a newly expanded, full-time position that merges a role as the national men's coach overseeing the male player development pathway with the Davis Cup coaching job.

On 26 January 2010 (Australia Day), Woodbridge and Woodford (the Woodies) were inducted to the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame for their achievements in tennis.

As a part of the induction ceremony, their bronzed statues were placed with other great Australian tennis players at the Melbourne Park.

In July 2010 The Woodies were inducted to the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

In January 2011, Woodbridge was confronted on court by Belgian player Kim Clijsters for comments he made via SMS to Rennae Stubbs alleging Clijsters was pregnant.

In 2014, alongside Woodforde, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) presented him with its highest accolade, the Philippe Chatrier award, for his contributions to tennis.

Woodbridge is also notable for being one of only 17 players in the Open Era (as of 2017) to achieve a triple bagel, against Johan Örtegren at the 2001 Wimbledon Championships.

The Woodies won a record 61 ATP doubles titles as a team, including 11 Grand Slam events.