Playing doubles

Today (4 Oct 2005) I heard Todd Woodbridge being interviewed on radio. He is promoting his new book called 'Todd Woodbridge'. He has now retired, but was one of the best doubles players ever. He won 83 doubles titles, more than any other player, and he won 16 Grand Slam doubles titles. He played mostly with Mark Woodford and they were known as the Woodies. They are both Australians.

He came across as articulate and very confident on radio. He talked of various players on the tour and his personal life. Unbeknown to me was the revelation that his older brother was a heroin addict and his father was a policeman. His brother's addiction put his father in an invidious position. Eventually the father did arrange for his own son's arrest, mainly so that he would have to be rehabilitated that way. His brother is now "clean", but has many illnesses. His kidneys and liver do not function very well.

It was for this reason that Todd said he vowed to make a success of his own life. He picked up a racquet very early and used it like a security blanket. He played with his mother and started winning older age tournaments very early. That meant he had to run away a lot, for fear of being bashed up!
He won seven Grand Slam doubles titles as a junior and was the number one player in juniors in 1987.

He never did too well in singles but strangely enough he was the first player to beat Pete Sampras at Wimbledon. This is of course because the Australians were very good on grass. Todd's serve was always unsteady. He could double fault a lot. His first serve was also reasonably weak compared with other heavy servers. He was excellent at the net though and had a great sense of doubles play.

He married young and has two children.

The other interesting thing about Todd is that the took part in the ATP Council and has spoken out against the proposed doubles changes.


In June 2005, the ATP proposed a trial of doubles' rules. This would occur at 6 tournaments. Grand Slams and the Tennis Masters Cup would not be effected because they are ruled by the ITF, not the ATP. The idea is that shortened doubles matches will encourage singles' players to participate in the doubles as well.

The changes mean that there will be no more advantage points. It will be the first to 4 points to win the game. There will be a tie-break at 4 all. If the sets are 2 all then a super tie-break will take place. As so many players expressed outrage at these changes, the tie break will now occur at 5 all in a set.
The ATP has long term ideas also. To play doubles the players will have to be eligible for singles also. The doubles' rankings will be based 50% on singles' play and 50% on doubles' play.

The world's top doubles players (not Todd in this case because he has retired) took the matter to the US District court in Houston. This suit has not been heard yet.

Todd called for the resignation of the ATP's Board of Directors. He said they didn't consult the players at all and the directors want more power. He also says that the changes discriminate against the doubles specialist. The players also do not participate much in the politics of the game, but many cannot do so because of language barriers.

Todd says in Australian tennis October 2005, "What they need to be careful of is that this doesn't bring the entire game down because one less skill set is gone. You could end up a circuit of clones. Tennis is about contrasts and they're taking away one important contrast between singles and doubles, between the baseline and serve-volley game. The ATP has a responsibility to take care of tennis, and it's not. They've gone ahead and totally changed something that doesn't need to be changed and it's against the players. If the tournament representatives don't resign, our player reps definitely should".

I couldn't agree more. Although my preference is to watch singles, many club players only play doubles and want to see how the game is played at the highest level.