Tennis Australian planning for post-Open events

Having secured the Australian Open for 2021, local officials are hopeful of hosting additional tournaments to round out February outside of Melbourne

Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley said the national body is looking to add more tournaments after guaranteeing the 2021 Australian Open would go ahead Picture: Michael Klein

Tennis Australia is investigating plans to extend a delayed summer of tournaments through to March after finally securing the Victorian government’s approval for its showpiece event.

Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley, who doubles as Tennis Australia’s chief executive, confirmed the body is looking to add at least another week to the summer.

Tennis Australia is finalising plans with the WTA Tour, which runs the women’s tour, and will consult with the ATP Tour about tournaments the week following the Australian Open.

The men’s and women’s tours have released the opening seven weeks of their calendar, with Melbourne dominating the landscape in the first three weeks of February.

Should TA be successful in securing additional events, Tiley said they would look to other capital cities to host the tournaments.

“We haven’t finalised week eight, but we will in probably the next 24 to 48 hours,” he told The Australian.

“The plan is to try and have at least a women’s event – maybe a men’s and women’s event – but at least a women’s event in week eight.

“I don’t know where we will do that yet. It is something we are working through. There is a lot of work still to be done on that. It is open right now.

“We have one last conversation with the WTA and once that is set, we have to go ourselves and see where we can host it.”

Months of negotiations with state and federal governments concluded with Saturday’s confirmation about how the summer of tennis will look in Melbourne.

Tiley said there were several moments where Australian officials feared for the future of the 2021 summer.

Phone calls to players and the respective tour executives between midnight and 4am became regular.

He is confident tennis and also Victoria will demonstrate it is possible to host major international events safely despite the current pandemic.

An ATP Cup worth $10 million will run from February 1 to 5 featuring 12 teams. As host nation, Australia will receive a wildcard to compete.

Two separate WTA tournaments, one headlined by Ash Barty, will also be held at Melbourne Park, with the site’s spread of courts and three roofed stadiums a clear advantage.

Tournaments will also be held in the second week of the Australian Open for players beaten in the early rounds of the grand slam event.

But tennis authorities are keen to give players opportunities to compete in a relative COVID-19 safe haven, though the current scare in Sydney is an obvious concern.

There were plans to hold an Australian Closed Championships in Sydney after Christmas, though Brisbane had also been considered as a potential location.

Another week of tournaments in Australia in either Sydney, Adelaide or Brisbane, to complete February would be a drawcard for players who were starved of opportunities to compete during 2020.

The Australian understands planning is underway in regards to events in Asia in the first week of March, which makes sense from a travel perspective, but there are quarantine hurdles to overcome.

The outbreak in Sydney’s northern beaches provided Tiley with confirmation the correct call was made in November to relocate the initial three weeks of the Australian swing to Melbourne.

“In hindsight I think it has been one of the best decisions we made, early, because we managed everyone’s expectations,” he said.

“We did a lot of work with each state on what the quarantine environment could be and where we got stuck was that each environment was going to be a bit different.

“How could we guarantee the borders were not going to be shut? We saw that happen with South Australia a couple of weeks ago. We can see what is happening in Sydney.

“It was not a decision we took lightly because part of the essence of our sport is in each city, but this is the only facility in Australia that can host the grand slam.

“But it doesn’t mean we may not be able to go from Melbourne to other cities, which is what we are looking at doing (after the Australian Open). This is going to be a year where it is going to be different.”