Grand Slam-winning great admits one element of tennis ‘needs rescuing’

Every major tennis tournament features a range of different events, but 17-time Grand Slam-winning doubles champion Mark Woodforde fears a discipline he excelled in is in need of a major reboot.

Doubles is very much a side-show at major tournaments and the only time it captures the imagination of fans in the stands or watching on television is if one of the game’s top singles players opts to enter.

Novak Djokovic’s partnership with Nick Kyrgios at the ATP 250 event in Brisbane was a thrilling start to 2025 for the doubles game, but sustaining interest in this discipline of the sport will be challenging unless we get more big names taking to the court.

Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis thrilled the Melbourne crowds as they teamed up to win the 2022 Australian Open doubles title and they will reprise that partnership at the first major of 2025.

While the ‘Special K’ doubles partnership of Kyrgios and Kokkinakis later this month will grab headlines once again, the challenge of getting the doubles events the attention they merit is an ongoing issue for the sport.

Here, in an exclusive interview with Tennis365, Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open 2025 ambassador Woodforde reflected on the decline of interest in doubles matches, with the interest generated by his iconic partnership with Todd Woodbridge now seeming like a distant memory.

What can we do to generate more interest in doubles tournaments?

Mark Woodforde: “It is a big question, but the doubles game needs a bit of rescuing, in my opinion. I had a great partnership with the same player. Once Todd (Woodbridge) and I joined forces, we had almost a decade together. Now, there is too much chopping and changing of partners and we don’t get a chance to see a partnership grow together any more, which is a shame. Maybe we can shorten matches in Grand Slams to encourage more singles players to take part in doubles and we need to look at ways to encourage players to compete. Being a tennis player means you compete in all the disciplines out there and that is singles and doubles.”

Do you think more singles players should play doubles to improve their game?

Mark Woodforde: “Absolutely. When we get into the Davis Cup, we see the top singles players stepping up and playing in doubles and we also saw it at the Olympics, with the pairing of Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal creating so much interest. What I would say on this topic is that in order to reach the Hall of Fame at the end of your career, you need to do well in the Grand Slams and winning a few in doubles would help that. But we see the draws at a major tournament and there are very few top singles players entering the doubles now. That is a bit of a head-scratcher for me. I don’t think there is one quick fix, put it that way.”

So do we need more doubles pairs to stay together for longer?

Mark Woodforde: “I think so. When Todd and I presented Kyrgios and Kokkinakis with the trophy after they won the Australian Open in 2022, we said to both of the fellas that they could become one of the best doubles teams. They don’t have to play every week, but a pair like that can bring attention and bring the crowds in to watch doubles. I just don’t think a lot of the doubles teams now have brand recognition as they don’t stay together for long enough for fans to follow them.”

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Were there any players from your era who could have benefitted from playing doubles as well as singles?

Mark Woodforde: “I look at someone like Michael Chang. He was a fantastic tennis player, but he did not play doubles for most of his career and by the time he did, he may have left it too late. He was on the verge of being the No 1 singles player on a few occasions and if he had played some doubles it might have helped him. If he learned how to serve and volley and understand how to put the ball away at the net, that would have translated to success on the singles court. Then he could have claimed one of the ultimate prizes… the chance to say you are No 1 in the world.”

Did you ever fall out with Todd?

Mark Woodforde: “We had our moments when we had some problems, but we stuck together. We saw that it made sense for us. Success was driving us. Getting into the record books was all we needed to stay together and we stuck it out.”

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