Woodbridge cherishes gold medal above all

We at tennismash posed the question to Todd Woodbridge – if your house was burning down and you could only save one of your many tennis trophies, which would it be?

Without hesitation, the Australian doubles legend said he would rescue his Olympic gold medal.

“I think people would be surprised at that,” said Woodbridge, who teamed with compatriot Mark Woodforde to win gold for Australia in men’s doubles at the 1996 Atlanta games.

“We talk about majors in tennis and how important they are. And for me my dream was to win Wimbledon, which obviously I was lucky enough to achieve.

“But the value of an Olympic gold medal is far greater for me personally than a Wimbledon trophy in terms of a physical piece. I think the medal has got an aura about it that a slam trophy doesn’t have.”

Woodbridge, who won nine Wimbledon men’s doubles titles among 22 Grand Slam doubles trophies (16 men’s, six mixed), said that the Olympics had a resonance with the wider sporting public that major tennis tournaments couldn’t match.

“The Olympics draws people in because it has a real nationalistic culture to it. Everybody gets behind their winners and they feel a part of that win and the emotion that goes with it,” he explained.

“When you win tennis events, it’s not quite like that; people might say, oh that’s cool, I’m a big fan. But you don’t get the whole interaction from the country that the Olympics brings in.

“As the Woodies, we were a well-known doubles combination to tennis fans. But we became a household name because of the Olympics.”

The Olympic Tennis Event will be staged at Rio’s newly-constructed Olympic Tennis Centre from 6-14 August 2016.