In his collaboration with ANZ Bank and Tennis Australia, Woodbridge enjoyed a hit with future stars, but took particular notice of the lawn courts.
As a nine-time winner of Wimbledon — which is played on the most famous lawn courts in the world: All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club — Woodbridge said it was great to see a small country town boasting its own courts.
“One of the great joys for me is that if there's a lawn court anywhere I want to play,” Woodbridge said.
“When you get here and see this, it really warms my heart to see there's real grass court tennis in play.
“Even when you go to Wimbledon now, it's not the same type of grass as it was; it's more neutralised.”
Woodbridge said Australians were often popular overseas due to the attacking style of tennis that grass courts played a big role in producing.
“This is where the game of serve and volley — kind of the real Australian tennis culture comes from; our personality of Australian pace is to be aggressive,” he said.
Many youngsters picked up their racquets to have a hit of tennis with Woodbridge.
Kyabram Lawn Tennis Club was granted the $10,000 to build a new storage shed.
Club president Greg Tarrant said the current storage shed was overflowing with equipment.
“It's going to be bigger, better and will store a lot of equipment,” Tarrant said.
“To have Todd here is really exciting. I believe he's probably the biggest tennis player we've had here.”
Tarrant said the club was continuing to grow.
Woodbridge won a total of 16 grand slams during his career. He is best remembered for his partnership with fellow doubles pro Mark Woodforde.
Both were commonly referred to as “The Woodies” during their partnership.
8°C