Record ninth title at SW19 for Woodbridge

Published on Monday 5 July 2004 01:09

TODD Woodbridge won a record ninth Wimbledon men’s doubles title when he and Jonas Bjorkman beat Julian Knowle and Nenad Zimonjic 6-1 6-4 4-6 6-4. However, the Australian’s day ended in disappointment as he and compatriot Alicia Molik lost the mixed doubles final to Zimbabwean pair Wayne and Cara Black.

The Blacks prevailed in an exciting final 6-3, 6-7 (10/8), 6-4 after saving match points in the second-set tiebreak. It completed a double for Cara, who had earlier won the women’s doubles with Australian Rennae Stubbs. The partnership’s first grand slam title came courtesy of a 6-3, 7-6 victory over Liezel Huber and Ai Sugiyama.

Woodbridge’s total of nine titles is one more than Doherty brothers Laurie and Reggie, who together won eight finals between 1897 and 1905. "

It was my dream as a kid to be able just to play here so to be able to say I’ve won more of this particular event than anyone in the history of tennis, uhm, geez, I’m proud of that," added Woodbridge.

Meanwhile, France’s Gael Monfils moved another step closer to winning a ‘grand slam’ of junior titles when he beat Briton Miles Kasiri 7-5, 7-6 in the Wimbledon junior final yesterday.

Monfils, who the Australian Open and French Open junior events earlier this year, will become the first player since Sweden’s Stefan Edberg in 1983 to win all four junior titles in one year if he wins at the US Open in September.

Kasiri’s defeat meant he failed in his bid to become the first British winner of the Wimbledon junior title in 42 years.

The teenager was hoping to emulate Stanley Matthews junior, son of ex-England soccer international Stanley Matthews, who won the under-18 title at the All England Club in 1962.

The last junior champion to go on and win the men’s singles title at Wimbledon was Roger Federer. The Swiss won the boys singles in 1998 before his senior titles in 2003 and 2004.