The Woodies, peerless masters of the tramlines for over a decade, said goodbye yesterday. The bleachers pounded all afternoon in the sweltering, outdoor Olympic tennis centre as Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge made their last stand, losing the gold medal match to Sebastien Lareau and Daniel Nestor in a fourth-set tie break.

The most glorious tennis partnership of modern times ended as it had begun - with defeat - but then there was always a curious symmetry about this pair. Afterwards it was the younger of the duo, Woodbridge - who will pursue a doubles career with Swede Jonas Bjorkman now that his old friend is leaving the game - that seemed the more upset.

"Funny, I hadn't been emotional all year even after we had won the French Open and Wimbledon. I blocked it out the whole year, I guess, but . . . some things you don't expect to end and when they do, it's so sad."

In truth, the Woodies have performed with more distinction - their final play together was a double fault - but this was not so much about tennis as a celebration of their career. The home crowd turned up to pay homage. They drank beer and danced and cranked up the famed chant, "Wooodies, Wooo-dies" with every break. In a sense, Sebastien Lareau and Daniel Nestor formed suitable opposition, perfect reminders of the tanned, baseball-capped, goateed, streamlined anonymity that is the men's game today.

One of the reasons the Woodies were so adored was because they were so quaintly old fashioned. Watching them on the box on Wimbledon all those summers, it always came as a mild surprise that the pair were Aussies, so well-mannered and pristine and polite were they.

Mark with his Robert Redford mop of red hair and Todd looking as if he had come straight from choir for the match. The Woodies looked like the quintessential lawn tennis partnership and you know that Dan Mascell is cooing in appreciation even now.

And yesterday, playing their last, they did seem to represent a relic to a time that has passed, so much so that a Canadian fan yelled, "come on guys, the Woodies play with their shirts tucked in".

But the Woodies' record is as remarkable as their tailored elegance. Since getting together in 1990, they have won an astounding 61 doubles titles, including 10 grand slams, while five of their six Wimbledon crowns were in succession.

By the late '90s, it appeared as if their ingenious understanding was waning and that they were a fading power, but in what was an emotional tour of tennis' great venues this year, they rallied to take Wimbledon and the elusive French title as a wonderful gesture of farewell.

"I shed tears after we won in Paris in the locker rooms and certainly after Wimbledon," said Woodforde, smiling. "I even cried after we lost the US Open, when just a small group of us went out to dinner.

"So because I don't have tears in my eyes now doesn't mean I don't feel the emotion. I'm sure it will hit me later on tonight. Right now, it's kind of numbing, but, you know, what a lot of great memories to live and dream on."

Woodie Mark is the leftie. Woodie Todd plays right. Mark lives west coast, Todd to the east. They like the same wine. Devour the same food. Both their wives are due to give birth for the first time this Christmas. They both made it to 19 in the world singles rankings. This will be the first time in 10 years that they haven't spent 35 of the 52 weeks living out of hotels and playing tennis.

"This ending," says Woodbridge, "this is what I always wanted for the Woodies when we finished up, here in front of our home crowd and not at some small tournament in some city across the world".

Asked about gatecrashing the party, Daniel Nestor gave a reminder that sentimentality pays its own way on the professional sports circuit. With both he and Sebastien Lareau just one of the pack in the singles game, Nestor wryly observed the packed press tent and noted that "everybody's your friend when you're winning".

"It was great," he said of the Woodies' career ending with a loss. "We have been under their thumb often enough, so this being their last match in front of their crowd, it was great to send them away on a loss."

Although the home pair managed to win the first set 7-5, they had a poor day from then on, losing the next two sets 6-3 6-4 and struggling to stay alive all through the fourth. After Woodbridge sent a second serve crashing into the net when trailing 6-2 in the tie break, their days were done. They were given a final, thundering ovation, but, by the time they came back out to receive their silver medals, the stands had mostly cleared and it was twilight.

There were still a few hundred souls scattered around though, enough to holler and bang the seats and send them off into the warm night. Mark Woodforde stepped away from his partner for just a moment for one lone acknowledgement.

"It was all perfect," said Woodbridge, which was about right.