Speaker 1: Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Sitdown.
Speaker 1: I'm Matt Trolope, a rat an editor for oz open
Speaker 1: dot com.
Speaker 2: And I'm viv Christie, managing editor for Australian Tennis magazine.
Speaker 2: And Matt, why are we sitting down with Todd Woodbridge
Speaker 2: for a second time?
Speaker 1: Well, if we sat down with Todd a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago for an episode that you can go back
Speaker 1: and find in your feed, but we decided to make
Speaker 1: a special part two focusing on all of Todd's Wimbledon
Speaker 1: achievements and memories and milestones because this was a tournament
Speaker 1: that he dominated at. He's got his greatest historic achievements there.
Speaker 1: With Wimbledon on at the moment, we felt it was
Speaker 1: fitting to bring you this episode. We also chatted to
Speaker 1: him about an amazing piece of Wimbledon history he holds
Speaker 1: he's the last player at a Grand Slam tournament to
Speaker 1: defeat a player in a triple bagel. That's six love,
Speaker 1: six love, six love. Now I will just clarify I
Speaker 1: said in the interview this was the last time that happened.
Speaker 1: It's actually happened a few other times in Davis Cup matches,
Speaker 1: but yeah, this was the last time that happened at
Speaker 1: a Slam and just feels fitting that it was Todd
Speaker 1: that achieved it.
Speaker 2: And like so many Australians, Todd's tennis dreams were sparked
Speaker 2: by watching Wimbledon late at night as a child, which
Speaker 2: is where we pick up this fabulous interview.
Speaker 1: Todd Woodbridge, thank you very much for joining us on
Speaker 1: the Sit Down podcast. I remember you mentioned once that
Speaker 1: you specifically developed a game that would succeed on grass.
Speaker 1: I hope I remember that correct, all full success at
Speaker 1: wimbledem That was my goal, right, So I was going
Speaker 1: to say what inspired that and what did it involved?
Speaker 1: Was that your idea? Was that a coach that did that?
Speaker 3: Like, No, there was inspiration from watching so so I
Speaker 3: used to get up the middle of the night. I
Speaker 3: would go to bed seven eight years of age and
Speaker 3: I'd say to Dad, I'm going to bed, Can you
Speaker 3: wake me at ten o'clock to watch the start eleven
Speaker 3: o'clock And I watched an hour and a half two
Speaker 3: hours and then go back to bed and get up
Speaker 3: and go to school. I mean little taker. Put the
Speaker 3: heater on, sit in front of it and watch them
Speaker 3: come out in white tennis balls, all of that, and
Speaker 3: that was where I wanted to go.
Speaker 4: That was the dream.
Speaker 3: It literally was that whole thing of a dream. And
Speaker 3: to do that, Like I remember getting into the ais
Speaker 3: in Camber and you go, Okay, what have I got
Speaker 3: to do to have this dream?
Speaker 4: Ossie Serve.
Speaker 3: There was a perception of what tennis players were. We
Speaker 3: were good on grass. Clay wasn't necessarily our surface. But
Speaker 3: there are two different mentalities back then because you played
Speaker 3: on bad grass courts, not great grass courts that were
Speaker 3: all right, ball bounce sideways, it'd kick up. Go watch
Speaker 3: YouTube and see the old women and stuff. The ball's
Speaker 3: going here and here, and you needed to get forward
Speaker 3: and you had to be aggressive. That was our mindset
Speaker 3: and the clay courters in Europe a different mindset. They
Speaker 3: were rallied, they were moonballers. They'd sit there and they'd
Speaker 3: lob it back at you, they'd frustrate you. Well, games
Speaker 3: evolved differently from that now. But I made a decision
Speaker 3: I wanted to be better at Wimbledon than at Roland
Speaker 3: Garross very early on.
Speaker 5: Out of all those events and all those highlights, is
Speaker 5: there one in particular that sticks out to you?
Speaker 3: The most winning Wimbledon for the first time ninety three.
Speaker 3: The year before, we'd made Semis and lost to grab
Speaker 3: Brandenburg in five sets. The fifth set we had five
Speaker 3: rain delays and we lost at six to four. So
Speaker 3: you're coming out every two games trying to serve and
Speaker 3: keep momentum. I think we were serving second and they
Speaker 3: went on and lost an epic match to mac and
Speaker 3: Roe Stick in the final that year, and so all
Speaker 3: of a sudden, my mind, you're looking, we can do this.
Speaker 3: Mac and Roe Stick, huge names, you've got, you know,
Speaker 3: we're close. And then the next year winning and there's
Speaker 3: the dream and then the dream I spoke about a
Speaker 3: couple of times in these types of situations. The dream
Speaker 3: was you jump up and down, you roll around, you
Speaker 3: wave at everybody.
Speaker 4: It's that moment, right, and then you go to the
Speaker 4: side of the court and you sit down and you go,
Speaker 4: is that it can't be it?
Speaker 3: There's got to be more, There's got to be more euphoria,
Speaker 3: and you kind of actually then have to work out
Speaker 3: how you're going to do it again. I actually think
Speaker 3: winning at the second time and four fifth was even
Speaker 3: more rewarding. Each time you really understood what it took
Speaker 3: about about doing that. But the one thing about playing
Speaker 3: at Womland which is weird is that never ever did
Speaker 3: it feel like.
Speaker 4: You would offending anything. It was just always turning up.
Speaker 4: I'm going to win it again? Or can we win it?
Speaker 3: And the psychology of sport and how we all act
Speaker 3: as humans is incredible because I didn't do that anywhere
Speaker 3: else have a good result. Oh god, how are we
Speaker 3: going to keep our ranking?
Speaker 4: Singles?
Speaker 3: In particular, I've got all these points to defend and
Speaker 3: it's such a heavy burden. Never did that happen when
Speaker 3: I walked in at Wimbledon to play.
Speaker 1: That's so curious.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, we're a bunch of nutters. Well it worked
Speaker 3: for you, yes, not do it all year round.
Speaker 1: I don't know there was something about there. Obviously you
Speaker 1: weren't five times in a row, So yeah, that's no.
Speaker 3: I think I only know if I reflect upon my career,
Speaker 3: which I can do now because I'm older, and it's
Speaker 3: something like ten finals from let's say the first one
Speaker 3: in ninety three are retired in ninety five, made ten
Speaker 3: finals and one nine of them and lost one eight
Speaker 3: six in the fifth, And I look back, Wow, how
Speaker 3: do we do that and it's a week because it's
Speaker 3: a joint effort, but also to keep mentally fresh, injury free,
Speaker 3: turning up positive. And that then makes me reflect upon
Speaker 3: Nadal and a singles player doing what he did, and
Speaker 3: even a Roger at Wimbledon and Novac extraordinary feats of
Speaker 3: athleticism and human mentality.
Speaker 5: Well, we speak about your double success a lot, obviously,
Speaker 5: but we have to mention nineteen ninety seven Wimbledon, your
Speaker 5: run to the Semis obviously wins over people.
Speaker 4: Like Pat Rafter.
Speaker 5: Is there like something you took away or something in particular,
Speaker 5: I should say you took away from that career best
Speaker 5: run in singles.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was an interesting time. So on grass I
Speaker 4: would always play well.
Speaker 3: The people that I would lose to would be the biggest,
Speaker 3: serving better grass quarters than me, bigger athletes, stronger, and
Speaker 3: that used to annoy me a lot. And I had
Speaker 3: a good draw in a sense that I played really
Speaker 3: well once in big moments. You know, I got Pat
Speaker 3: on court three, good court for me to play him on,
Speaker 3: dodgy court, right little slopes. I knew where the ball
Speaker 3: used to pivot off a little bit, so he couldn't
Speaker 3: get the clean return it gave me opportunities like that.
Speaker 4: Doesn't happen so much anymore. Every court's perfect.
Speaker 1: Well it's a new court three now, isn't it's at Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a billiard table, so the ball doesn't move, doesn't
Speaker 1: do the same things.
Speaker 3: But I got lucky with the court drawer that day.
Speaker 3: Two his later, I played him on court two, which
Speaker 3: is the billiard table court, and every ball he could make,
Speaker 3: and it made it really tough. But the thing that
Speaker 3: happened to me there was that I always believed and
Speaker 3: knew that I could do it, but I always felt
Speaker 3: a little.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: It was like a.
Speaker 3: Little car with a one stroke engine taken on the
Speaker 3: six cylinders, and you just can't beat them after a
Speaker 3: certain pier. They're too big, too strong. And I almost
Speaker 3: felt at the end of that year that how am
Speaker 3: I going to get better?
Speaker 4: How can I come back and redo this?
Speaker 3: And that was that's a hard thing to start mentally
Speaker 3: thinking about. You have to make major change, and so
Speaker 3: maintaining singles, rankings and things then became hard, you know,
Speaker 3: And you look at me now in this game, modern game,
Speaker 3: very difficult. I'm a skills player. I was a tactician
Speaker 3: and a skills player. I wasn't a fast athlete with
Speaker 3: masses of power. I had to do things differently, and
Speaker 3: grass gave me the chance to be able to do
Speaker 3: that most of the time. So the people that got me,
Speaker 3: say at Wimbledon were Sam Press a couple of times.
Speaker 3: I'd got him once, but Todd Martin and Wimbledon finalist
Speaker 3: Gosh ed Berg a couple of times.
Speaker 4: They're all hard.
Speaker 3: All guys would go through, you know, through the draw,
Speaker 3: so you know, poor me, boohoo.
Speaker 4: But was pretty good.
Speaker 3: But but that that was something I was very proud of.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you've got some quirky stats as part of your career. Okay, good,
Speaker 1: good quirk Well Vic found a really good one.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, Sam Press.
Speaker 5: So that it was the first time he played at Wimbledon.
Speaker 5: That's the first time you played each other. Did you
Speaker 5: have any initial you know, I guess reactions to seeing
Speaker 5: him and thinking.
Speaker 4: Oh, this guy is going to be win the US Open.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Later that year he lost to him in the ninety
Speaker 1: seven semi but you actually, yeah, in his first ever
Speaker 1: match of Wimbledon was against anyone.
Speaker 3: We played on court nine second row, Tony Picard, who
Speaker 3: was Stephan Edberg's coach, big deal. You know, Stephant was
Speaker 3: the waiting opponent. He was out watching, and it was
Speaker 3: was kind of like we were the next era coming
Speaker 3: along of you know, maybe's and he hadn't done anything
Speaker 3: at that point yet. But we all when I say
Speaker 3: want a major, it was good. So it was a
Speaker 3: tough draw. I go out played just solid grass court
Speaker 3: tennis and get a win and then have to play
Speaker 3: Stephan Edberg on the center court in my next round
Speaker 3: get a set. So I'm, you know, a monngst good
Speaker 3: contenders at that point. But Sam, when I won the
Speaker 3: US Open later that year, I mean, his trajectory judgment sure,
Speaker 3: and mine kind of. But it's still pretty special to
Speaker 3: have had at least one win against him there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I think that's what's cool about it is
Speaker 1: the first time he ever played at wimbled in a tournament.
Speaker 1: He wore going to rule he had to go through
Speaker 1: you first, and he didn't make it in that particular.
Speaker 5: Match, and you'll always have that.
Speaker 1: I was like, I didn't know that.
Speaker 4: I wonder if he remembers.
Speaker 1: And the other thing, I'm pretty sure this is right.
Speaker 1: You're the last player to record a triple Bagel, Is
Speaker 1: that right, I think so.
Speaker 4: Do you remember the match?
Speaker 1: Yes, very much so in the I think of Wimbledon
Speaker 1: in two thousand.
Speaker 3: And final round of qualifying against you and.
Speaker 4: Love, love and love.
Speaker 1: That's and it's extremely rare, just in men's tennis history.
Speaker 1: How did you do that?
Speaker 4: How did I do it?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 4: Again?
Speaker 3: It was a real grass court, true fast. It had
Speaker 3: been a little hot period. We're playing at Roehampton. I
Speaker 3: was still playing really good tennis, obviously, but I'm not
Speaker 3: in draws, so i'm he's there and I get through.
Speaker 4: Ordagrin had had a couple of really good wins.
Speaker 3: He'd actually been in a section that had taken out
Speaker 3: Dick Norman, the Belgium huge serving who's really he was
Speaker 3: troublesome for me. He actually beat me in the main
Speaker 3: drawer one year where he'd beaten Edinburg Cash and then
Speaker 3: I lost to him, and then he went on I
Speaker 3: think lost to Becker in the next round, so he
Speaker 3: could do massive damage. So I was glad to see
Speaker 3: him out. But Joan had this issue in that he
Speaker 3: wasn't really a grass court. He had a good run
Speaker 3: he got there. It was not a bad draw for me,
Speaker 3: but he had the wrong shoes. He had regular shoes.
Speaker 3: He didn't have the grass court with the dimple then
Speaker 3: to kind of get the extra grip. And the courts
Speaker 3: had got kind of burnt out, slippery and dry, and
Speaker 3: I could get him quickly into a piece, and he
Speaker 3: just kept sliding like a clay court and had no
Speaker 3: way to come back, and he lost all confidence, all
Speaker 3: grip on the court. And I was ruthless, and.
Speaker 4: I it's just ice skating. And he wasn't a cervolley
Speaker 4: at any kind.
Speaker 3: So he's staying back on a court that I just
Speaker 3: need to make a really short knife, a little backhand
Speaker 3: in there, and I could get in and rush him.
Speaker 3: And I played pretty flawless obviously to be able to
Speaker 3: maintain that for that long. And he and I he
Speaker 3: coaches now and every now and again he sees me
Speaker 3: and he looks at me, goes. But the funny thing
Speaker 3: was to that story too, is that later in that year,
Speaker 3: I think it was later in that year, I go
Speaker 3: to Stockholm to play the indoor tournament and I go
Speaker 3: to practice with him, and we should we play, said,
Speaker 3: and I go up for love, and he eventually wins
Speaker 3: a game. And there were people standing watching oh RH
Speaker 3: for him when he finally got a game, because everybody
Speaker 3: knew the story and he and he takes it beautifully. Actually,
Speaker 3: it'd be hard to do today, that's for sure. But
Speaker 3: again that's my point about surfaces. It can happen. You know,
Speaker 3: it used to happen to really good fast cat players
Speaker 3: on clay. I remember Terry Champion might have had his
Speaker 3: moment against Sergiebighera on clay where he wasn't great fast
Speaker 3: cat player, but you know it could happen.
Speaker 4: Very interesting.
Speaker 5: I love that story.
Speaker 1: You got to have the correct equipment and you've seen
Speaker 1: a lot of years and competed against some of the greatest,
Speaker 1: like we've talked about Sampress and Agacy and all those
Speaker 1: other people's. Ed Burg was another one who were the
Speaker 1: who was the best or the toughest player you faced.
Speaker 3: In your Again that's them matchups. But my worst nightmare
Speaker 3: of a matchup was Andre Agacy. Okay, yeah, it was
Speaker 3: just like everything I did just sat in his pocket.
Speaker 3: It's like, well, here we go again. It's all about
Speaker 3: those matchups. You know.
Speaker 4: It's funny.
Speaker 3: Do we talk a lot in this one about Pete
Speaker 3: Sampras playing Pete wasn't as scary as playing an Andre
Speaker 3: for me because I knew I could hang on to Pete,
Speaker 3: I might get to tybreak, and maybe I can luck
Speaker 3: out and win a tie break. And that was where
Speaker 3: he played too, by the way he would just sort
Speaker 3: of hit it around, then build pressure and try to
Speaker 3: break you. But he knew he'd never lose you serve,
Speaker 3: so he had confidence to play that way. But Agacy
Speaker 3: was such a clean ball striker and if you gave
Speaker 3: him anything to hit, he had you in trouble. And
Speaker 3: plus he was such a brilliant returner. So in that
Speaker 3: in that space, he was great. But in terms of
Speaker 3: the others of the era that I played, I came
Speaker 3: up when Ivan Landel was number one, played him a
Speaker 3: couple of times as number one in the world, and
Speaker 3: he changed our game from everyone worked hard, but he
Speaker 3: brought a different work ethic to it. And he was
Speaker 3: a ferocious and intimidating competitor. And when I was a
Speaker 3: teenager coming along, the locker room was an intimidating place.
Speaker 3: There were those guys did not make you feel welcome.
Speaker 3: You know Connors, Yvonne, you get to know them, but
Speaker 3: at the beginning it's intimidating. I don't think it's the
Speaker 3: same now. I think I think Federer changed that a
Speaker 3: little bit. Rap of their manner was different to how
Speaker 3: ones before used to hold hold court, so to speak,
Speaker 3: and how they went about it. It's very different, you know.
Speaker 3: In some ways, I love all of the opportunity we
Speaker 3: have to get content, microphones, under seats, everything everywhere. But
Speaker 3: it's actually changed the dynamic of the player to play
Speaker 3: a relationship because there was banter, there was ribbing. When
Speaker 3: you went round the net post, people would talk to you,
Speaker 3: they'd say, they'd swear at you under your breath. The
Speaker 3: umpires didn't hear it, didn't ignore it. But that cannot
Speaker 3: happen anymore. So there's this whole there's a cleanness to
Speaker 3: it that is antized.
Speaker 4: We're not getting away with anything.
Speaker 3: No, And I would love to see a little bit
Speaker 3: more of that, because it becomes more of this and this,
Speaker 3: of like that psychology, and that was definitely there. You know,
Speaker 3: as I tell the story about Pat Cash, I qualified
Speaker 3: for Wimbledon for the first time in main draw seventeen
Speaker 3: years of age. Unbelieve I get to play the defending champion.
Speaker 3: There's two locker rooms I'm in the number two locker room.
Speaker 3: I get brought up to the champions locker room to
Speaker 3: walk on the Santa Court.
Speaker 4: He doesn't even say oh to me.
Speaker 3: I sent him a I seen him a note for
Speaker 3: his sixtieth and I reminded him of that and why
Speaker 3: I am this young Aussie? My bad cash center cord
Speaker 3: at wimbled unreal.
Speaker 4: He didn't even say hello.
Speaker 3: And I still remember that vividly, like, Okay, this is
Speaker 3: going to be a bit different. And I think we
Speaker 3: played the match. He shook my hand and that was that.
Speaker 3: Because he was a Wimbledon champion. I was just some
Speaker 3: you know kid, scruffy kid coming along there was That
Speaker 3: was how it was like until you really proved yourself.
Speaker 1: Okay, so interesting. That is so interesting because that was that.
Speaker 1: Particularly if it was a Nussy to a Nussie. Now
Speaker 1: you'd imagine it's like Matt, nice to meet your good
Speaker 1: luck today and beat the living.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I just love that.
Speaker 5: You reminded him all these years later.
Speaker 4: Never let him forget.
Speaker 1: Did he know, no, no, no, the he was at
Speaker 1: that point, Todd, this was an absolute pleasure. Thanks for
Speaker 1: joining us today to chat and yeah, thanks to pleasure.
Speaker 2: Well Matt. Isn't it nice to be reminded of how
Speaker 2: much Todd achieved at Wimwooden And it wasn't just a
Speaker 2: different time in terms of how players actually plagued tennis,
Speaker 2: but I guess how they also interacted.
Speaker 4: Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1: But it's all water under the bridge now because we
Speaker 1: heard just the other night Todd and Pat in the
Speaker 1: commentary booth together side by side, which was fantastic to hear.
Speaker 2: We'll be back next week with another episode of The
Speaker 2: sit Down. Please remember to subscribe so you never miss
Speaker 2: an episode in your feed, and we'd love you to
Speaker 2: leave us a rating and a review. See you next week, Matt,
Speaker 2: See you, Mbib