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The first time the world’s greatest doubles duo – the Woodies – played together, it was a disaster.

“A shocker,” laughed Mark Woodforde, the elder Woodie (by almost six years), who grew up in Adelaide but now resides in the United States.

“Yeah, we lost badly. We both played a different side of the court. Next time we played, we basically swapped sides (of the court). That was that. Then it got better,” added Todd Woodbridge, whose tennis dream started in Sydney but now continues in Melbourne, where he is Davis Cup Coach among a growing list of responsibilities.

As Woodforde and Woodbridge walked off court in New Haven following their 6-3 6-4 loss to American Steve Devries and Australian David Macpherson in 1991, their coach, Ray Ruffels, said to them “God, that was shocking. You’re gonna be better next time.”

Eventually, they did get better. So much better that their partnership eventually yielded 11 Grand Slams, 61 ATP titles, and gold and silver Olympic medals.

The pair won the French Open once (2000), the Australian Open twice (1992, 1997), the US Open twice (1995, 1996) and Wimbledon a record six times from 1993 to 1997 and again in 2000.

After that first loss together, neither would have dared to believe that one day they would be inducted into the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame. Tonight, almost 20 years later, their busts will be unveiled at Rod Laver Arena as the Woodies join Australian legends Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Margaret Court and many others as Hall of Fame members.

“I feel quite intimidated to be in that company. So it's a great honour. I'm quite overwhelmed by that,” said Woodbridge.

“I think it's such an incredible honour and probably equal, if not better, than winning the Wimbledons and the Olympics, because I think it just reflects back about how well you succeeded in the sport,” said Woodforde.

“That's just way, way above what I think I expected when I started out with my career.”

While Woodbridge openly wondered as to whether or not the Woodies’ busts should join all the others in Garden Square, a quick look at the stats confirms that their place is more than warranted.

To this day, they remain the most successful doubles combination ever. Along with their Grand Slam, Olympic and ATP title wins, they won the ATP Doubles Team of the Year four times and played together in three Davis Cup finals, including the winning team that defeated France in 1999.

And it was when representing their country at the Olympics and in Davis Cup that the Woodies achieved their greatest highs, but also felt the greatest burden of expectation.

“When you play for your country, you play with the most pressure of anything you ever do. When you play as an individual, it's your own expectation. When you play for a nation, it's theirs,” said Woodbridge.

But, like Roger Federer, the two Australians didn’t believe their legacy was secure until they had won all four majors. And, just like Federer, the French would prove to be the final, and toughest, to win.

“We both believed if we're gonna be considered as one of the best ever, you have to win everything: the majors, the four Grand Slams,” said Woodforde.

“So that was the one jewel that wasn't there. So to finish that last year [2000] winning the French Open … the jigsaw sat nicely.”

And, as in all great partnerships, communication was one of the keys to their success, with the pair only experiencing a couple of bumps in their long journey together.

“We had a couple of moments, maybe two or three, throughout our whole 10 year partnership,” admitted Woodbridge.

“It’s inevitable,” added Woodforde. “We're both competitive. We weren't competitive towards each other, but competitive in and amongst this quadrant of players. They're trying to beat us as much as we're trying to beat them.

“Through that whole process, we had really strong goals and wanted to do well. We both knew that we did that best with each other,” said Woodbridge.

And that’s the Woodies in a nutshell. Even after going their separate ways 10 years ago, they still can’t help but work as a team to achieve a common goal – even if it is just at a press conference.