[Seisyvose]

Saturday, 21 January, 2012
By David Packman

The Legends’ doubles event returns today, bringing past heroes of the sport before their Australian Open 2012 fans at close range.

“We keep growing, we keep getting the big names back,” Legends’ tournament director Todd Woodbridge. “It just keeps getting better and better.”

The tournament will this year stage a women’s legends’ doubles event in addition to the men’s. Three-time Australian Open champion Martina Hingis will return to Melbourne Park, along with Martina Navratilova, winner of a dozen Australian titles. Rounding out the women’s field is Tracy Austin, Barbara Schett, Iva Majoli and Australian Nicole Bradtke.

"Getting [Martina Hingis] back is great," said Woodbridge. "She's still playing a great brand of tennis.”

Barbara Schett said it was an opportunity to catch up with old friends and that she was definitely going to enjoy herself, “but obviously, when you are out there on court, you want to win, so we’ll see.”

“I’m really excited to play alongside Tracey [Austin]. She’s always been an idol for me growing up,” she added.

In the men’s doubles event, Australia will be well-represented by past stars including 1987-88 Australian Open finalist Pat Cash and the ever-popular “Woodies” in Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde. Among those joining them will be 1999 Australian Open champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Goran Ivanisevic and of course, perennial crowd favourite Henri Leconte.

Leconte announced on Friday, “I’m ready to play. This is the Legends. That’s the way we are.” His doubles partner in this event, Guy Forget, was a little more down-to-earth when asked how he prepared to play with the game’s clown prince. “Like I do every time. Take an aspirin,” he mused.

[Seisyvose]

The men will be divided into two round robin groups, with the winning team from each group progressing to a final.

The groups are as follows:

ROSEWALL GROUP

Woodbridge/Woodforde

Cahill/Fromberg

Ferreira/Kafelnikov

Forget/Leconte



LAVER GROUP

Cash/Ivanisevic

Muster/Arthurs

Pioline/Bahrami

Eltingh/Haarhuis

[Seisyvose]

The women will each play two matches, with the winners by percentage moving through to the final play-off.

The women’s pairings are:

WOMEN’S GROUP

Martina Hingis/Iva Majoli

Martina Navratilova/Nicole Bradtke

Tracy Austin/Barbara Schett



In addition, Woodbridge revealed an additional surprise for the fans.

“The plan is to have a big mixed doubles match later next week,” he said. “Keep that under your hat, though.”