The United States Tennis Association (USTA) has named the Tennis Australia (TA) head Craig Tiley as its next Chief Executive Officer (CEO) bringing an end to the South African’s long and successful reign over the Australian Open Grand Slam.
‘Reuters’ stated that the USTA said Tiley would formally assume his responsibilities in the coming months while working with Tennis Australia (TA) on finding a successor.
Purchase (US)-based the United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members it invests 100 percent of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis from the grassroots to the professional levels. The Association was created to standardize the rules and regulations and to promote and develop the growth of tennis in the United States.
Melbourne (Australia)-based Tennis Australia Limited is the governing body for tennis in Australia. It is owned by the Australian States and territories. The association organizes the national and international tennis tournaments. In addition, the association takes the responsibility to facilitate tennis at all levels from grassroots to elite development. Tennis Australia’s State-based member associates carry out the promotion, management and development of tennis within Australia. Other than that it administers the amateur tournaments and the youth development programs.
The Australian Open is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is the first of the four major tennis tournaments every year held before the French Open, the Wimbledon and the US Open.
‘Reuters’ further stated that the 64-year-old replaces Lew Sherr who stepped down from the position last year to join the Major League Baseball (MLB) team New York Mets as the team’s President of Business Operations.
Tiley, who led Tennis Australia for 13 years and the Australian Open for 20, said he was excited to return to US tennis having been a successful college coach at the University of Illinois in the 1990s and early 2000s.
He told newsmen, “There’s never really a good time to leave any place but Tennis Australia is in the best place it’s ever been. I think there’s another opportunity as we work on global tennis collectively and in the United States work on helping them grow the game, specifically getting more people to play.”
The USTA said Tiley would help the governing body achieve its goal of growing participation to 35 million players by 2035.
Renowned for championing innovation and player-first initiatives, Tiley transformed the Australian Open into one of the world’s most successful sporting events continually breaking the attendance and the revenue records.
Under his leadership the Melbourne Park underwent major renovations adding a roof to the second show court – the 7,500-seat Margaret Court Arena – and boosting the capacity.
The Australian Open was the first of the four Grand Slams to introduce electronic line calling in 2021 and in recent years it has turned into a three-week event with entertainment and exhibition matches bringing crowds to the qualifying week.
Tiley also expanded the tournament’s global footprint by bringing media production in-house.
He added, “I think the ‘festivalization’ of the event has been the most transformative.”
With the tennis calendar packed by the competing events and the players frustrated by the demands of the schedule and their share of the game’s revenues, Tiley said the tennis authorities needed to work together to come up with a better product.
He continued, “(Global tennis) needs to be better understood by the fans. If I asked what happened last week as a fan could you tell me? Who won what event? Does it have a story? No. It needs to be better for the players. Do the players have a long enough off-season? No. Are more players making sufficient money? No. I will say that same thing no matter where I am that the sport can be better aligned … It’s on us to do it.”
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