WIMBLEDON

July 6, 2000

Todd Woodbridge

Mark Woodforde

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Maybe, maybe, but it never felt easy, to be honest with you. It always felt like you had to keep the concentration up because we slipped a little bit in the second after having a break, let them back into that set. You know, it was probably tougher today coming off the match we had yesterday. It was long and exciting - really, really good tennis all around. Today was a good mental effort, to come back and be ready for the semi today.

MARK WOODFORDE: Fine. I didn't think it was overly taxing at all yesterday. It was just a lot of emotion.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Yeah. That's what I thought. For me, I felt the same. Physically I came out pretty good because obviously we're fit enough to be able to handle that. But yesterday was tough to get through from two sets to one down, mental effort, to have to regroup quickly. Sometimes you want to stay on a high. If you let yourself think about what happened yesterday too much coming out today, refocusing on a new match is difficult.

MARK WOODFORDE: I think we're playing fine. Obviously, you know, getting through the final means you're doing something right. But I still believe there's room for improvement from both of us. You know, I think it was great that we played a tough, tough match yesterday. I think that always prepares you. You always need that in a Grand Slam tournament if you're going to go all the way. You need to feel every emotion as well as being able to hit the ball solidly off the ground off both wings. I think we're happy that we've got it this far. We're just looking forward to getting out there. I think we both are quite aware that we can step it up another one or two spots, regardless of who is at the other end.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: We're probably -- confidence-wise, we're as confident as we've ever been, going back to the years we've won. I would think that. You know, Mark was just talking about the form. I think our form has been pretty solid because grass is a surface that's it's not always possible to hit the ball perfect because you've got guys that can serve big. What we did well today going into the final was when it got to a time in each set, we came through with good returns and good first serves. That's what you need to be able to do to win a championship on grass. Really, I think it's in as good a shape as any time we got through to a final here.

MARK WOODFORDE: Well, I think we've learned over the last few seasons that you don't try and go out there and want things too badly because it has a way of not turning out. We actually have never, this whole fortnight, spoken about this being the last time. I think we both know, deep down we know that this is it. Regardless of whether making the final, losing the final, losing early, we just wanted to come in and play well. That's really been our ethic this whole year, when we step on the court, try and enjoy it as much as possible. When we enjoy it and are having fun, we seem to be playing well. All the other stuff, it being the last year, it hasn't crossed my mind. Todd hasn't mentioned it. It's nice to be involved in another final. We have a couple tough opponents to play.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: For me, coming here this year, I think a lot of the public have heard that it's going to be our last time here. We've got a lot of the British public treating us as almost their own. That's really been great. A lot of times when we've walked out onto the court, we've got a really nice ovation. You've been able to feel it. I'm sure our opposition has felt it. It's kind of like playing at home. A bit of a lift, a bit of something on our side. This is a great way to be here at the last Wimbledon, being in the last match, you know. We'll be up in the Royal Box on Saturday, and that's what we really both would have liked to have finished here on. We just want to see if we can take the trophy one more time.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: After here?

TODD WOODBRIDGE: That would probably be the Olympics. That's our major one really.

MARK WOODFORDE: US Open. We've been taking it really each big tournament in turn. I mean, the Olympics is important. It is important to us because it is in Sydney. I think the last couple of years we've sort of set our sights on that, to try to keep getting better to see if we can win another gold medal. The US Open is a couple weeks before that. It would be nice to have another good showing there. That will get us into some good form going into the Olympics. I think at this stage for us, it doesn't -- I don't think it counts as much or is as dear to us. We'd like to win as many tournaments as possible this year. But I think winning some of the lower-category events doesn't mean as much to us this year specifically. Our sights have been set on a lot of the major tournaments, which is the Slams and the Olympics, a couple of the others that we haven't won. Let's see if we can focus on it.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: We're trying hard to get rid of him.

MARK WOODFORDE: Actually Todd said it and I concurred with him. I think, you know, it depends on how we feel. It would be nothing better to win those tournaments.

MARK WOODFORDE: Probably not going to retire right there, because if you make the Davis Cup final, you'll be playing Davis Cup.

MARK WOODFORDE: Going on and playing some of the other tournaments, I think as I just said, a lot of the other tournaments, while we'd like to win them, they pale in comparison to the Slams and Olympics. I don't see any motivation for us. That's why Todd, you know, probably said that in Paris.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: I didn't say it (laughter).

MARK WOODFORDE: There's no motivation to go on and play a couple of indoor tournaments, which doesn't matter to us if we win or lose them. Hopefully by that time we will have been the No. 1 team for the whole year. There may not be any reason to go and play unless something, you know, is dangling in front of us.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: A replay from Paris. It's also the -- the last time we were in the final, we had to play Paul here when he was with Eltingh, Jacco Eltingh. It was the first time we played them together in Paris. We've only played them together as a pair once. Really we know both of their games pretty well. We spent a lot of time with Sandon from Davis Cup. We know Paul's game very well. Really it's a matter for us to go out and basically we had a plan in Paris to stop them playing the games that they like to play. Paul returns well. We've got to stop him from returning well. Try to keep Sandon a little bit uncomfortable, because he can get flashy. If we can probably stop him from swinging freely at the ball, then we have a good chance.

MARK WOODFORDE: I think that's probably up to the Brazilians themselves. We've got a pretty handy team leading into it. It's up to them whether Guga is comfortable playing three matches. It looks like he'd have to maybe win three matches for them to have any chance. I mean, he has to play very, very well on grass. I think our guys are pretty comfortable on it. You don't say they've got no chance, but he's, we'll, going to have to rise to the occasion. Davis Cup is usually the perfect arena when people do step up to the plate. I think we're probably the favourites going into it.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: No.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: No.

MARK WOODFORDE: Long, deep question, that one. It's hard to put it into a nutshell.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: If we look at some of the tournaments this year that we've been at, in Hamburg, Monte-Carlo, Rome - I didn't play Monte-Carlo, Rome, but Mark did - we had a very high percentage of the singles players in that draw. Some of the doubles teams still came through and won. But we had I'm guessing around 65 to 70% of the singles players in the draw. People say that those guys aren't playing, but they are playing. That's important to keep it going, is that all those guys are out there, drawing people to come and watch them play the other side of a game. I think that's the main thing, that we get back out there and have the likes here of Lleyton Hewitt still playing in the mixed doubles, Patrick Rafter up until this year was always playing here, been in the semis three or four times. That's just what we have to encourage the younger players to do, to keep on improving their games. Without that, they really become one-dimensional players that lack the ability to move forward comfortably and serve-and-volley comfortably.

MARK WOODFORDE: I think there also needs to be some combinations, as well, that stick together, stick it out. I mean, people associate us with doubles because we've played for so long and obviously been successful. I think the team that was likely to take over from us would have been Paes and Bhupathi. Unfortunately, they're having trouble this year. It would be great if they could take up the slack again next year. I think a lot of people recognized their high standard of doubles play. They were quite similar in the brand of tennis that we are known for and they had a great last season making the four finals of the Slams. I think if the public can also recognize a particular team and support them throughout the year instead of a couple of weeks, someone playing with someone different, they don't know who is playing with who. That gets a bit discombobulated.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: We need nations also to get pairs like the Woodies, Eltingh-Haarhuis, Paes-Bhupathi, that helps because the profile back in each country is lifted because the Indians are superstars in India, ours are household names in Australia. You need countrymen to stick together and work at it.

MARK WOODFORDE: You're obviously wanting to know about Mahesh and Leander. If they can sort it out between themselves, really there's no one else to be involved. For Todd and I, if there was some problem between us, we worked it out ourselves. We tried not to attach and bring other people into the disagreement. There's always going to be disagreements. As long as you can communicate well enough with each other and be honest enough.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: We used ours as a business, too, and were smart enough to realise that what we had was good and you have to keep working on it. It's like anything, you have to keep working to try and improve it. We had something that was good and kept on improving, have always done even to the stage where we're nearly finished playing together. That's why we've been able to stay together for so long through good, bad times and everything. We realised that what we had was something very special, and it's stupid to throw it away.