Thirty years later, Mark Woodforde looks back on Wimbledon win with Martina Navratilova

WATCH: Martina Navratilova announced earlier this year that she beat breast and throat cancers.

Having won five Grand Slam mixed doubles titles, Mark Woodforde brings extensive credibility to that discipline. On a winter Saturday morning in Texas, he’s now 5,000 miles and 30 years away from a powerful mixed doubles moment he remembers as clearly as if it happened yesterday.

It occurred at the place every player dreams about: Wimbledon, where 30 years ago, Woodforde won the mixed doubles event, paired with a partner he at first hardly believed wanted to play with him.

As he recalls that memory, Woodforde is at the John Newcombe Tennis Ranch in New Braunfels, Texas. The occasion is Tennis Fantasies for Men & Women, an annual co-ed fantasy camp. As one ball after another comes his way, Woodforde demonstrates the crisp left-handed volleys that in 2010 earned him a spot in the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Then Woodforde pauses and speaks about the nuances of mixed doubles.

“You’ve got to find the best way to talk with your partner throughout the whole match,” he says. “You’ve got to keep working together. The points can be very different in mixed. The man and the woman each have very different roles. There are going to be lots and lots of different situations that are going to put you both to the test.”

Over the course of this day, 75 men and women will compete all over the Newcombe ranch’s 31 courts. And then, as day turns into night, having coached one match after another alongside Newcombe and other tennis legends, Woodforde shares his own incredible Wimbledon mixed doubles experience.

When the phone call first came, Woodforde thought it was a joke, a friend pretending to be an iconic tennis player asking him to be her partner for the 1993 Wimbledon mixed doubles event.

For what was Woodforde in early 1993 but a hardworking Australian who’d finished the previous year ranked No. 40 in the world? Sure, he’d started to make a reputation for himself in doubles, including a run to the 1989 US Open title alongside John McEnroe, a pair of mixed Slams with compatriot Nicole Provis, and, at the 1992 Australian Open, his first men’s doubles Slam with another Aussie, Todd Woodbridge.

So when the caller said she was Martina Navratilova, Woodforde didn’t believe it. Finally, she spoke more emphatically: I got your number from Neale Fraser. Fraser, a three-time Grand Slam singles champion, also at the time happened to be the Australian Davis Cup captain.

Holy smokes, thought Woodforde, this is no prank. Naturally, he agreed.

Shortly before the tournament started, Woodforde sat in the Wimbledon Village, awaiting the keys for the flat he’d rented for the tournament. Suddenly, a Porsche zipped down the road past Woodforde, screeched to a stop, and then reversed itself in his direction. A window rolled down and revealed a familiar face.

“Hey, partner,” said Navratilova. She was 36 years old and, that year at Wimbledon, was also seeded second in the singles. With Woodforde, she was third in the mixed (for the first time, she’d opted out of the women’s doubles). By that stage of her career, Navratilova had won 17 Wimbledon titles in all three disciplines, on the path to eventually tying Billie Jean King’s all-time mark of 20.

“You pinch yourself,” Woodforde said. “But I was wondering if we were going to get in enough practice time since she’s got singles and doubles as do I. I was also wondering if the mixed was going to be an afterthought for her. But it wasn’t, not at all.”

Having lost that year in the second round of the singles, Woodforde had ample time for doubles, be it with Navratilova or Woodbridge. But while he and Woodbridge by then were in sync, building chemistry with Navratilova–particularly during the sport’s biggest tournament–was new territory.

The vast majority of players practiced at Aorangi Park, several banks of grass courts located at the north end of the All England Club. But Navratilova’s status as a decorated Wimbledon champion gave her the chance to practice on the actual match courts. This is exceptionally helpful on grass, where no matter how well-maintained the courts are, each plays a little differently. So it was that the two lefties went off for a workout on Court 10, joined by another southpaw, Woodforde’s coach, former pro Ray Ruffels.

“We were hitting short court,” said Woodforde, “which I’d never done. So Ruff said, ‘just go with it because it works for her.' ... I wondered whether she thought I was good at this because I was missing the ball and here she is, just bumping it nicely in front of me. But we kind of got through it.”

Just don’t think the perks of court access apply to match assignments. The Navratilova-Woodforde tandem’s first match took place on No. 2 Court, Wimbledon’s intimate and notorious “Graveyard of Champions,” where many a favorite had been toppled. Though Navratilova wasn’t particularly worried about their first-round opponents, Cynthia MacGregor and Trevor Kronemann, she was definitely concerned about the crowd edging too close to the court. Given that Monica Seles had been stabbed on a changeover less than two months prior, Navratilova’s fears were justified.

Navratilova and Woodforde won that opener, 6-2, 7-6(7). From there, all continued to click, particularly when, in the second round, they were assigned to Centre Court.

“That’s where I learned why she had dominated Wimbledon,” Woodforde said. “She just knew that court like the back of her hand–the bounces, the targets, how the sun worked as the day wore on if you were left-handed. It bowled me over and I saw how to be a champion you have to do your homework.”

The wins continued, the next three without the loss of a set: first, Aussies Rachel McQuillan and David Macpherson and next, American duos Meredith McGrath and Luke Jensen, and Kathy Rinaldi and Patrick Galbraith. Then, after losing the first set on their semifinal to Natasha Zvereva and Mark Kratzmann, Navratilova and Woodforde rallied, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

All along came the distinct challenges that accompany mixed doubles–many of the same that Woodforde shared years later with recreational players at Newcombe’s ranch. “You’ve got to be the guy,” he said. “You’ve got to hit the lady, you’ve got to stick the overhead.”

Meanwhile, Woodforde and Woodbridge were advancing through the men’s doubles draw, on the way to winning their first of an eventual six Wimbledons together. There was also a strong possibility that the two Woodies would meet in the mixed final, as both reached the semis. But at that stage, Woodbridge and Arantxa-Sanchez Vicario were upset by Manon Bollegraf and Tom Nijssen.

On finals day, this was Woodforde’s state of mind: “You’re absolutely, absolutely panicked. But Martina was never that way. It was precise–you turned up at the right time and were ready to go.”

As the match began, Woodforde remained nervous. Serving the opening game, he went down 0-40. “We got out of it,” he said, “and I remember her tapping me on the back. It was very reassuring.”

It’s likely that Woodbridge and Zvereva would have been much tougher opponents, given that both were extremely skilled, versatile, and strategically astute. Bollegraf and Nijssen were good too, but far more straightforward. Having held in the opening game, Woodforde felt increasingly relaxed. The two won the match, 6-3, 6-4.

“The chains had come off and away we went,” he said. “I probably felt most at ease in the finals than any of the other matches we’d played.”

A year later, the 37-year-old Navratilova opted to focus strictly on singles in hopes of winning the title there yet more one time. She lost in the finals to Conchita Martinez. Meanwhile, Woodforde reached the quarterfinals of mixed alongside Meredith McGrath. In 1995, Woodforde won Roland Garros with Larisa Savchenko-Neiland.

But at Wimbledon, the two of them ended up losing a three-setter in the semis to the eventual champions: Jonathan Stark and, yes, Navratilova. Says Woodforde, “She was just so good. Wow.”

The next morning at Newk’s, Woodforde will tell several campers how pleased he was with their efforts in the previous day’s mixed matches. “It takes work to build a connection with a new partner,” he said. “Believe me, I know.”