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Historic win Woodies set doubles record, get career Slam
Posted: Saturday June 10, 2000 03:47 PM
PARIS (Reuters) -- Australians Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge beat Paul Haarhuis and Sandon Stolle 7-6 6-4 in the French Open doubles final on Saturday to complete a career grand slam and set a record 58 Open era doubles titles. They shared the previous mark with Americans John McEnroe and Peter Fleming and South Africans Bob Hewitt and Frew McMillan. "I'd like to thank everyone for staying," Woodforde shouted to the depleted Center Court crowd in the failing light afterwards. "It's really great -- a momentous occasion for us ... I'll never stand on this court again," said Woodforde who is retiring at the end of the year. "Todd will have another chance to play here but for me this is special. "I will have fulfilled everything by the end of the year ... there's really no motivation to keep going. "I will have had enough and can go away very content. It would have been a real regret for me to have stopped and not won this major tournament, so to win today fills everything I ever imagined for Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde." Woodbridge added: "Winning the French Open is better than getting the record but this is definitely the best way possible to break it. "For it to finish here [get the record] is just amazing." But he added the pair might not even make it to the end of the year if they win gold at at the Sydney Olympics. "That would be the perfect way for us to call it a day [as a team]. There is no better way to bow out." Woodbridge said that McEnroe, commentating in Paris for U.S. television, looked him up before the final. "I saw John McEnroe in the locker room beforehand and he said 'best of luck, sort of...' "I think he really wanted us to win the French Open but didn't want us to get the record. "He'll always stay in the books, though, because he was one of the all-time greats."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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