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Wednesday, September 27
Canadians send Woodies out as losers
SYDNEY, Australia -- It began as a joyous celebration of a
brilliant career but ended as a wake.
Canadian pair Daniel Nestor and Sebastien Lareau stunned
Australian combination Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde on
Wednesday to win the men's doubles gold medal at the Olympic
Games.
Nestor and Lareau beat the defending Olympic champions 5-7,
6-3, 6-4, 7-6, (7) in 2 hours 46 minutes, stunning a sellout
crowd that had hoped for a home victory in the Woodies' final
match as a team.
Instead, Woodbridge and Woodforde, the most successful
doubles combination of all time, said farewell to their
Australian fans as losers.
The match ended when Woodbridge, who struggled throughout
the match, served two successive double faults to hand victory
to the Canadians.
The top seeds had aimed to bow out by becoming the first
team to successfully defend the Olympic men's doubles title --
but left-hander Nestor and Lareau silenced a crowd that began
the day in festive mood, singing Waltzing Matilda and
repeatedly chanting "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. Oi. Oi. Oi."
Nestor and Lareau won Canada's first Olympic gold medal in
tennis -- and the first major title of their career as a team.
The Canadians have known each other for 18 years but only
came together as a permanent combination last year with the
Olympics as their target.
The fourth-seeded pair had twice lost to the Woodies
earlier in the year but played cool, calm tennis to silence
the pro-Australian crowd and rob the Woodies of a fairytale
farewell.
"The Olympics has always been a dream for me," Lareau said.
"I wanted to be a part of it and I knew with Daniel I had a
good chance of a medal. This is the highlight of my career.
Something really special."
The Australian pair who won 11 Grand Slam titles and an
Olympic title and helped Australia to victory in the Davis Cup
will not play again as a combination.
"I'm not disappointed about losing today because we played
as hard as we could play," said Woodbridge, who will now play
with Swede Jonas Bjorkman. "I just feel emotional because it is
over."
With Woodbridge's wife, Natasha, expecting a baby in
December, he will not be available to partner Woodforde for
Australia in the Davis Cup final against Spain.
Woodforde, who turned 35 last Saturday, might still play --
but with another partner -- in Barcelona before bringing the
curtain down on his playing career at the end of the year.
"It may be silver today, but our partnership was gold,"
Woodforde said.
Woodbridge, the one with the schoolboy grin, and Woodforde,
the left-hander with the flaming red hair, bowed out of tennis
with a total of 61 doubles titles, more than any other team in
history, including six at Wimbledon.
Their final year in 11 as a team had been one of their most
successful and they split as the number one-ranked pair in the
world after victories at both the French Open and Wimbledon
this summer.
While the Australians started well enough, they were worn
down by their more consistent rivals. Woodbridge, in
particular, wilted in the quickfire cut and thrust.
It was the second time Yugoslav-born Nestor had upset the
applecart at the Games. In the men's singles he defeated
Australian crowd favorite Pat Rafter.
"It's the greatest feeling," he said. "It's nice to send
them out with a loss and nice to finally win a big one."
The bronze medal went to Spanish pair Alex Corretja and
Albert Costa, who defeated fifth-seeded South African combination
David Adams and John-Laffnie de Jager 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Their match had been halted by rain on Tuesday night with
the Spaniards leading 3-2 in the third set.
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