Nothing to see here: Tiley rejects ‘Bogan Slam’ claim and says wild Open crowds are the norm

We’ve seen the good, the great, the bad and the ugly at the Australian Open. All par for the course, says tournament director Craig Tiley.

USA's Madison Keys poses with the 2025 Australian Open winner's trophy on Brighton Beach in Melbourne on January 26, following her victory over Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka in the women's singles final. Picture: AFP

Nothing will change when it comes to crowd control at the Australian Open.

Tournament boss Craig Tiley sees and hears no evil when it comes to the rowdiness.

“The majority – 99.9 per cent of fans – absolutely not,” Tiley told Australian Associated Press after a tournament highlighted by exceptional tennis, packed stadiums, Alex de Minaur’s bold run and Madison Keys’s thrilling victory but lowlighted by certain audiences booing, hissing, jeering and delivering expletive-laden insults at overseas players, most notably American Danielle Collins and 10-time champion Novak Djokovic.

“I fully expect controversies,” Tiley continued.

“With one million people coming through the gate for over three weeks, if there’s nothing, that would be a bit strange.

“There’s always going to be one or two that heckle or say something. The same thing last year and the year before. It’s not like the number of evictions we’ve had has gone crazy high. Evictions have been on par with previous years, or fewer. And our officials are instructed very clearly that if they get a call for any disruption of play, they radio in and security go to the people.”

The crowd for the Collins match against Destanee Aiava was a shocker. I was courtside. Some of the language thrown at her was so disgusting it shall not be repeated. Think of the worst, lowest denominator insults you can give a woman and that’s what she was copping. The guilty parties should have been turfed out. Folks were drunk as skunks and I wrote in my notebook “Bogan Slam?”

Days later, the callous send-off to a heartbroken and injured Djokovic was disrespectful.

There’s two sides to the Open. The best is great. Wonderful. Fun. Fantastic. The worst makes a mockery of Tiley’s description of the Happy Slam. What’s the ­reality? Somewhere in between. An alcohol limit would help. If it didn’t incite a riot.

Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley. Picture: Graham Denholm/Getty Images

“The people who write that probably weren’t even here or they’ve got an axe to grind about the slam,” Tiley said of the Bogan Slam description. “There’s always going to be one or two people that make it unpleasant for others. That’s human behaviour. Whenever people say the word ‘bogan’ or that it’s not a ‘Happy Slam’, they’re definitely not here.”

I was there. I heard and saw the best and the worst.

“I want to look more at the number of fans who come through the gate and the energy and the enjoyment that they’re having is at an all-time high,” Tiley said. “We’re not going to design an event where we’re going to keep people silent because then the next question is going to be ‘Why aren’t people enjoying it?’ ”

Meanwhile, Keys’s victory was why we love sport and at the end of the day, the rough-around-the-edges Open. For the inspiration of great athletic accomplishment. For the life lessons.

Madison Keys has spent an eternity trying to get things right. Her mindset, her self-belief. Finally, in a classic final, she did it.

What helped? Professional help. “I’d done therapy before,” Keys said. “But it was always too sports-specific. I always went in with the thought of ‘Will this help me perform better?’

“I finally got to the point where I was personally low enough that I was like ‘I don’t really care if this helps me perform. I just want to feel better.’ It was like ‘I don’t ­really care what I have to do, I just want to feel better.’”

Aryna Sabalenka smashes her racquet after her defeat by Madison Keys. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

She felt oh-so fine at Melbourne Park. “It’s something I’ll continue to do for the rest of my life,” she said of her therapy sessions. “I think if more people do it and more people talk about it, then it just kind of becomes the norm. It’s almost as if you’re going to the doctor. No one bats an eye at that. I think it’s just kind of overwhelmingly needed for most ­people.”

Keys, 29, is a mega-popular American who’d never fulfilled her potential because of chronic timidity and self-doubts under pressure. She’d always been nearly too nice for her own good.

She cast all the near-misses and wasted opportunities aside by staring down Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 in a match so emotional that both players ended up in tears while the vanquished smashed her racquet on a courtside bench.

Keys’s triumph was the biggest feelgood victory since the mother of all feelgood results – Ash Barty’s win in 2022. “I’m just really proud of myself,” Keys said. “I didn’t always believe that I could get to this point. It means the world to me.”