Under pressure to resign amid Novak Djokovic vax saga tennis chief Craig Tiley pushed on
There were calls for his head over the Novak Djokovic vax saga but Tennis Australia chief Craig Tiley never considered quitting.
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It was the closest Australian Open boss Craig Tiley has come to throwing in the towel.
But not when you would most expect it.
As politicians ducked for cover in the midst of Novak Djokovic’s messy entry to and subsequent deportation from Australia last January, an awkward global spotlight fixed firmly on the Tennis Australia chief as opponents lined up to call for Tiley’s head.
More accustomed to being acknowledged on centre court during a winner’s acceptance speech, Tiley suddenly found himself in the sights amid calls for him to resign.
As Victoria reeled from another round of draconian Covid restrictions and the public voiced outrage that Tennis Australia had apparently helped Serbian anti-vaxxer Djokovic get an Australian visa to play in Melbourne, it seemed to some the perfect time for Tiley to fall on his sword.
Yet Tiley has now revealed that despite mounting pressure he never thought at the time about quitting as director of one of only four grand slam events in the world.
That would come later.
“At the time, when I look back, I was surprised at my response because I felt very calm,’’ he said.
“The learning I took away was I cared about what the people I knew said.
“The people I didn’t know – I didn’t care – because at the end of the day everyone is entitled to their opinion and their view and I knew the truth.
“We were just doing the best we possibly could under the circumstances.’’
Those circumstances involved staging a 14 day global showpiece, delivering an economic return to Victorian taxpayers and keeping a workforce of 12,000 across the Open, Tennis Australia, Melbourne and Olympic Parks in a job.
All at a time the Andrews Government dictated crowd numbers would be limited to 50 per cent and every spectator had to wear a mask unless eating or drinking.
It also came as Tennis Australia’s finances – already belted in 2021 when even stricter restrictions were in place including a five day snap lockdown in the middle of the tournament – took a sizeable hit.
Tiley, in charge of Tennis Australia since 2013 and the Open since 2006, admits it was a tough time.
“Would I prefer it didn’t happen? Absolutely,’’ Tiley said.
“Personally, it was a very difficult period but I was more concerned about our team and staff who were impacted indirectly and in some cases directly impacted by some of the extreme negativity and blame game that went on.
“But at the end of the day we were just doing our best.’’
History will show Tiley and his team did well despite the circumstances.
Although Tiley was booed while presenting Aussie Grand Slam winner Sam Stosur with flowers to mark her retirement early in the event, crowds thawed as the tournament progressed.
The fact Ash Barty became the first Aussie women to win a Grand Slam on home soil in 44 years and Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis drew crowds to their circus antics doubles act and claimed the title also helped.
In his 10 years as AO boss, Tiley has had to deal with crowd violence, bushfire smoke, police pepper spraying spectators, extreme heat, rain, player petulance and a dust storm before even hearing of Covid-19.
But just being able to deliver the past two AOs had “conditioned the organisation’’ it could be “resilient through any circumstance”.
“Not that we want to be challenged like we have for a couple of years again but I do think that in years to come when we look back on ’21 and ’22, they will be among the most remarkable accomplishments of the sport,’’ he said.
“To be able to host an international, global sporting event – in ’21 the first event that did it with people travelling and ’22 at the height of omicron and a new variant.
“Those will be two accomplishments that will be viewed as most remarkable achievements and I think that will be more felt in the future because we are kind of still living it today.’’
Amid calls for him to step aside, Tiley also dealt with player demands, state and federal governments, health departments and an ever-changing set of rules.
“The goalposts moved every day and they moved in a number of different circumstances,’’ he said.
“But they didn’t just move before the event, they moved during it as well.
“The big learnings I had from a leadership point of view were – don’t worry or get worked up about the things you can’t control. But the things you do have control over – you just do your best.’’
Not until the curtain fell on AO2022 did Tiley, the South African-born former tennis coach, finally weigh up whether he should explore other options.
Yet he only acknowledges this fact when pressed on how long he intends to serve as Tennis Australia CEO and Australian Open tsar.
“As long as people want me to, although I think I will probably make the decision,’’ he said.
“The day I wake up and I say, ‘I don’t feel like it’, I will quit that day.
“I don’t know when that is, it’s not right now.”
“I thought it may be after this last year because it got a little harder and I thought I could go and have some other challenges.
“I can’t do nothing, so that won’t be in my future.
“But I didn’t – I got really re energised after being really exhausted.’’
Rather than quit when the chips were down, Tiley said he got a second wind with his back to the wall.
“I personally got re-energised because after being hollowed out as an organisation, I felt it was my responsibility to bring the sport back as quickly as we can,’’ he said.
“I felt it was my responsibility to lead that so I did feel a sense of obligation and that was also driven by a sense of being re-energised by the opportunity.
“There were a lot of pressure moments but I also knew once the event got going … we would have the support of the players.
“I also appreciate at the time Melbourne had been under lockdown for a long time and emotions were running high and none of us liked it.
“And I appreciate even more that people lost loved ones – at the end of the day that was the bigger picture – the health and the wellbeing of the community.’’
Tiley, 61, lives in a $13 million beachside Aspendale home that shattered the suburb record by $8 million when he and wife Alicia bought it last July.
Born in Durban in 1962, he “grew up in the bush in Africa’’ and recalls listening to Aussie Ken Rosewall take on Jimmy Connors in the 1974 final at Wimbledon.
His childhood coach told him of “the Aussie tennis legends’’, launching a lifelong love affair with tennis that would take him to the coaching courts of US colleges before making Melbourne home.
While he drew widespread criticism at the height of last year’s Djokovic saga, Tiley revealed he had two family members die from Covid during the most intense period of his professional career.
“Everyone was impacted,’’ he said. “Half my family live in the U.S. and two members died from Covid during that period and I was unable to go back and see them.
“But I wasn’t the only one, everyone was impacted by it, and it was difficult for those people that weren’t able to see their family and their loved ones during that period.’’
The Herald Sun this month revealed foreign and interstate raiders had circled the Australian Open, hoping to steal it from Melbourne as a cash crisis caused by Covid lockdowns tore Tennis Australia’s cash reserve from $80 million to zero.
Tiley has gambled Tennis Australia’s future on the success of the Open in Melbourne in response, investing in the future of the event including an ambitious target of luring a record 900,000 fans this year.
“I think this year we’re on track to be in a break even position, so everything is tight,’’ he said.
“But it’s tight in a positive way because we’re investing in the future.
“We are taking this year as an opportunity to invest in a platform for growth in 2024, 25 and 25.
“So we are not going to be bounding in profit for 23, we haven’t planned that because any expenditure we have, including the little bit of reserve that was remaining we are investing in platform growth for the future.”
Known for barely sleeping as the Open takes over Melbourne and with a work ethic carved from compulsory South African military service, Tiley reckons he is “useless on holidays and useless by himself because I’ve always got to be doing something’’.
Tiley genuinely loves tennis and confesses his aim is to rank the sport as the most participated in Australia in the next five years.
“We are still up there, we are the number two or three, but the objective is to make it the most participated in the country,’’ he said.
Asked how he thought the AO would look in five years, Tiley rattled off predictable predictions about more technology, fan experiences and a “completely upgraded environment for the ‘off-site’ fan’’ with different devices, artificial intelligence, streaming and viewing experiences.
But he also spoke of the need to continually expand and upgrade Melbourne’s iconic sporting precinct, including Melbourne Park.
With Roland Garros recently doubling the size of the French Open facilities, Wimbledon buying a nearby golf course to expand its footprint and US Open officials adding a stadium with a roof, Victoria had to think big despite Melbourne Park being “a bit bound by the railway line and Olympic Boulevard and Richmond, up to Birrarung Marr.’’
“We already use some of Collingwood’s facilities during the event and some at AAMI Park,’’ he said.
“There is talk of covering the rail line and that could change things too.
“Expansion will be needed.
“There was a period when we were way behind (the other grand slams) and then we caught up and everyone was together.
“Now those other three are making massive jumps and they can because they have space.
“So what is going to be our massive jump to ensure we don’t fall behind?”
If running a national sporting body and one of the crown jewels of Australian events wasn’t enough, Tiley is also chair of the Coalition of Major Professional and Participation Sports Association, of which the AFL, NRL, Cricket Australia, Netball Australia and Rugby Australia join Tennis Australia as members.
Taking off his tennis hat, Tiley declared we should set a higher benchmark for success and that “sport in Australia is definitely over-governed’’, with the AFL a good example of a code that had made governance changes and “thrived since”.
“We have great success, but we should be dominating,’’ he said.
Asked what drives him, Tiley paused for reflection before answering: “I enjoy helping people.
“I do love seeing other people succeed and have success, particularly after hard work.
“I love helping and I mentor a long list of people and advise a very random bunch of people.
“But going back to teaching and coaching, in my career I was either going to be a nurse, a doctor, a teacher, just someone who could impact other people’s lives.’’
Far from being confined to their hotel rooms or training courts as they were in 2021, players at this month’s Open will be greeted by full crowds in Australia’s sporting capital for the first time since January, 2020.
Victorians will endure no curfews or travel restrictions and interstate and overseas sporting tourists are set to be welcomed with open arms.
Tiley said it was time to return one of the nation’s best major events to its former glory.
“I think we’re on that track – returning to the success we had,’’ Tiley said.
“We had a very strong growth platform planned and Covid slowed that, provided a significant interruption to that.
“We exhausted our reserves in the process but at the end of the day we’re an organisation that is coming out with no debt.
“We don’t owe anybody anything.’’
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