"Over 10 years, you're going to have some ups and downs and the best way to solve those is by actually putting the problem on the table and dealing with it, and that's what we did, and it wasn't always easy to do but we did it, and that way we got longevity out of the partnership," Woodbridge, 37, said yesterday.

"I think the key was we actually had very good communication, and we gelled well. We both were extremely driven in a sense of wanting to achieve but we both had the same goal in mind, and the ability, and the slightly different personalities. Things gelled, and where things didn't gel, we just didn't say, 'Oh, bad luck', we worked bloody hard at making it happen."

Woodbridge laughs now when he recalls his father, Kevin, insisting during his earliest days as a talented junior that doubles would be his "bread and butter", as singles was where he intended to make his name. But just as Paul McNamee and Peter McNamara enjoyed the marketing fillip of the "Supermacs" nickname a few years earlier, with their successors' emergence came the doubles brand known, naturally and catchily, as the Woodies.

"What we achieved through our doubles partnership was amazing and has overshadowed our singles results. People know who the Woodies are. That's the terrific part," Woodforde, 43, said in an earlier interview with The Age .

"We both have each other to thank for where we stand in terms of making a name for ourselves, being remembered as one of the great doubles teams — that's never going to disappear. I think probably for the rest of our lives we're going to have that bond between us … for the rest of our lives, we're going to be the Woodies."

Among the highlights: the first of five consecutive Wimbledon titles in 1993 (what Woodbridge calls "cementing a page in tennis history, at least"); and the Olympic gold medal in Atlanta three years later ("that took us out of being tennis players and made us household names as sportsmen").

The Woodies still play occasionally now, in seniors events, and keep in regular email contact — Woodbridge living in Melbourne with his wife Natasha and two children and Woodforde's primary base in Palm Springs, California, with his American wife Erin and two daughters.

"I suppose we're further apart at times now than what we used to be, but what I've enjoyed over the past few years is actually getting back on court with Mark in the Legends events because we have more fun on-court now than what we did when we were 'running the business', so to speak," Woodbridge said.

"I suppose now we reminisce about the great shots we hit on big points and all that sort of stuff, and then we also reminisce about, 'Oh, remember when you used to make that one!'."

Tomorrow night's shared Hall of Fame moment will be among the most cherished, as it represents an Olympic-like crossover from tennis into the broader sporting world. There has also been time to reflect and appreciate, almost eight years after Woodforde's exit and just over three since Woodbridge played his last tour-level match.

"I'm thrilled," Woodbridge said. "I've had time now to look back on the things we achieved because when you're actually doing it, you don't take on board: you just think a win's a win and a loss is a loss, and now we look back and we go, 'Jeez, we had a pretty amazing run'."