Mark Raymond Woodforde, OAM (born 23 September 1965) is a former professional tennis player from Australia. He is best known as one half of "The Woodies", a doubles partnership with Todd Woodbridge.
Woodforde was born in Adelaide, and joined the men's professional tennis ATP Tour in 1984. Woodforde won four singles titles, including his hometown Adelaide tournament twice. His best singles result in a Grand Slam was reaching the semi-final of the Australian Open in 1996, his 38th Grand Slam singles tournament, which remains a record for the longest time taken to reach a maiden semi-final. Woodforde is best known for his doubles success, having won twelve Grand Slam doubles titles in his career – one French Open, two Australian Opens, three US Opens, and a record six Wimbledons. Eleven of these victories came as a member of the Woodies, and he won the 1989 US Open doubles with John McEnroe. He also won five Grand Slam mixed doubles titles – one French Open, two Australian Opens, one US Open, and one Wimbledon; thus making an overall total of 17 Grand Slam doubles titles. He reached the world No. 1 doubles ranking in November 1992.
He enjoyed the greatest success of his career when playing men's doubles with Woodbridge, combining his left-hand baseline play with Woodbridge's swift volleying reflexes at the net. They were the ATP Doubles Team of the Year four times, and all together the Woodies won 61 ATP doubles tournaments (Woodforde won 67 in his career).
Woodforde's other career highlights included a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Woodforde was awarded the Medal of the Order of the Australia in the 1997 Australia Day Honours "for service to sport as gold medallist at the Atlanta Olympic Games, 1996".
Woodforde played for the Australian Davis Cup Team in three Davis Cup finals, including teaming with Woodbridge to clinch the 1999 win over France in Paris to give Australia its first Davis Cup victory in 13 years.
Woodforde retired from professional tennis in 2000 after a Davis Cup final loss to Spain, and was appointed the coach of Australia's Fed Cup team in 2003. He has since provided commentary for tennis on Fox Sports and ESPN.
In January 2010 on Australia Day, the Woodies were inducted to the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame for their achievements in tennis. As a part of the induction ceremony, their bronzed statues were placed with other great Australian tennis players at Melbourne Park.
In 2014, alongside Woodbridge, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) presented him with its highest accolade, the Philippe Chatrier Award, for his contributions to tennis.
Grand Slam finals Doubles: 16 (12 titles, 4 runners-up) By winning the 2000 French Open, Woodforde completed the career Grand Slam. ResultYearChampionship SurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin 1989US Open Hard John McEnroe Ken Flach Robert Seguso 6–4, 4–6, 6–3, 6–3Win 1992Australian Open Hard Todd Woodbridge Kelly Jones Rick Leach 6–4, 6–3, 6–4Win 1993Wimbledon Grass Todd Woodbridge Grant Connell Patrick Galbraith 7–6, 6–3, 7–6Win 1994Wimbledon Grass Todd Woodbridge Grant Connell Patrick Galbraith 7–6, 6–3, 6–1Loss 1994US Open Hard Todd Woodbridge Jacco Eltingh Paul Haarhuis 3–6, 6–7(6)Win 1995Wimbledon Grass Todd Woodbridge Rick Leach Scott Melville 7–5, 7–6, 7–6Win 1995US Open Hard Todd Woodbridge Alex O'Brien Sandon Stolle 6–3, 6–3Win 1996Wimbledon Grass Todd Woodbridge Byron Black Grant Connell 4–6, 6–1, 6–3, 6–2Win 1996US Open Hard Todd Woodbridge Jacco Eltingh Paul Haarhuis 4–6, 7–6, 7–6Win 1997Australian Open Hard Todd Woodbridge Sébastien Lareau Alex O'Brien 4–6, 7–5, 7–5, 6–3Loss 1997French Open Clay Todd Woodbridge Yevgeny Kafelnikov Daniel Vacek 6–7(12), 6–4, 3–6Win 1997Wimbledon Grass Todd Woodbridge Jacco Eltingh Paul Haarhuis 7–6, 7–6, 5–7, 6–3Loss 1998Australian Open Hard Todd Woodbridge Jonas Björkman Jacco Eltingh 2–6, 7–5, 6–2, 4–6, 3–6Loss 1998Wimbledon Grass Todd Woodbridge Jacco Eltingh Paul Haarhuis 6–2, 4–6, 6–7(3), 7–5, 8–10Win 2000French Open Clay Todd Woodbridge Paul Haarhuis Sandon Stolle 7–6, 6–4Win 2000Wimbledon Grass Todd Woodbridge Paul Haarhuis Sandon Stolle 6–3, 6–4, 6–1
Mixed doubles: 7 (5 titles, 2 runners-up) ResultYearChampionship SurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin 1992 Australian Open Hard Nicole Provis Arantxa Sánchez Vicario Todd Woodbridge 6–3, 4–6, 11–9Win 1992 US Open Hard Nicole Provis Helena Suková Tom Nijssen 4–6, 6–3, 6–3Win 1993 Wimbledon Grass Martina Navratilova Manon Bollegraf Tom Nijssen 6–3, 6–4Loss 1993 US Open Hard Martina Navratilova Helena Suková Todd Woodbridge 3–6, 6–7Win 1995 French Open Clay Larisa Savchenko-Neiland Jill Hetherington John-Laffnie de Jager 7–6(10–8), 7–6(7–4)Win 1996Australian Open Hard Larisa Savchenko Neiland Nicole Arendt Luke Jensen 4–6, 7–5, 6–0Loss 1996Wimbledon Grass Larisa Savchenko Neiland Helena Suková Cyril Suk 6–1, 3–6, 2–6
Career finals Doubles (67–24) Legend Grand Slam (12) Tennis Masters Cup (2) Olympic Gold (1) ATP Masters Series (14) ATP Championship Series (11) ATP Tour (27) Titles by surface Hard (36) Clay (9) Grass (10) Carpet (12)