Craig Tiley announces Tennis Australia departure ahead of his move to take over as head of the US Open

“Every year, we were the only global event going on under the conditions we did [including hotel quarantine and strict conditions]”We’re doing what we do in the most difficult environment in the world,” Tiley said.

“I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved there. We’ve overcome that and our annual growth rate over the last 10 years is 15 per cent per annum. There are very few companies in Australia that can afford that.”

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The USTA announced Tiley’s appointment on Wednesday morning (AEDT), with chairman and interim co-CEO Brian Vahaly saying the organization was prioritizing finding a new leader who could accelerate participation growth and help it achieve its goal of reaching 35 million players by 2035.

“Craig brings a rare combination of global credibility at the sport’s highest level and a proven commitment to growing the game from the grassroots,” Vahaly said.

“This balance is exactly what this moment calls for. Craig’s leadership and understanding of the entire tennis ecosystem will be invaluable as we seek to fully leverage the power of the US Open as a platform for inspiration and growth.

“We are excited to build on our current momentum with six consecutive years of participation growth, and we are confident that he is the right leader to take American tennis to the next level.”

Since then there has been significant speculation about Tiley’s future. sporic In December, USTA officials reported that they were in advanced talks with the South African-born power broker to become the organization’s new CEO, replacing Lew Sherr, who accepted a job with the New York Mets.

Tiley will remain in his current role for the next few months and will be part of the process to find his successor or successors if TA’s board chooses to split the positions again into CEO and Australian Open boss.

Tiley’s departure to the USTA, which runs the US Open, ends his more than two-decade association with Australian tennis, which began in 2005 as the TA’s director of player development.

He became tournament director of the Australian Open the next year and took over as CEO of TA in 2013. The Melbourne-based grand slam has become a massive event, with a record 1,368,043 fans attending this year’s Open over three weeks.

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The USTA contacted Tiley about the vacancy after last year’s US Open, which ended in September.

Top candidates to replace him as Australian Open tournament director include Brit Stephen Farrow, the organization’s chief events officer.

Farrow is tournament director of the United Cup and was previously director of international events for Great Britain’s governing body, the Lawn Tennis Association, during which time he was tournament director of the Queen’s Club Championship.

Another option is Peter Johnston, who joined Tiley and his predecessor Paul McNamee in officiating the Australian Open and currently manages the Kooyong Classic as well as a number of ATP and WTA events.

Cameron Pearson has impressed with his work at the Brisbane International and could be in the mix.

Tennis Australia’s tennis chief Tom Larner is seen as the favorite to be promoted to CEO if Tiley’s dual role is split.

Another contender is Australian Craig Morris, who has been with the USTA for the past decade and now serves as coaching CEO after initially becoming involved with community tennis.

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“We’ve laid out our strategy out to 2030, so we’ve laid out what we need to do to operationalize that,” Tiley said.

“We’ve already decided on our heroic initiatives each year and have laid so much groundwork that it’s going to be very good and ’27 is going to be a bigger year than ’26.’

“I’m very excited about the future of TA, and I wouldn’t leave if it was in bad shape or needed someone to make it better. We’re leaving at the peak of its performance opportunity, but it’s also the first foundation for the next level it’s going to go to.”

“It was the highlight of my career and I think it will be great.”

Tiley summed up his successor’s top priorities as Australian Open boss as the “four S’s”: more seats, more shade, more space and more screens.

There are already discussions between TA, the Victorian government and Collingwood Football Club officials about expanding the Open along the route from Melbourne Park to Olympic Park.

But TA’s development performance remains a polarizing issue among its community.

Tiley, who started performing and played a key role in the turnout including introducing Hot Shots, said the organization had come a long way since he first arrived when there were only a handful of Australian men and women in the top 200.

Apart from the grand slam success of former world No.1 Ash Barty, there is a group of rising women starting to make breakthroughs after a barren spell, but there are concerns about the men’s shares behind top-10 star Alex de Minaur.

“ [player pathway] The structure is solid. Tiley said it ebbs and flows.

“Every country, every nation goes through cycles. I have performed for a long time and I know very well that you cannot react too quickly to a bad cycle where you have to change everything. The most important thing is to be consistent.”

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