Last week, Craig Tiley finished up his time at Tennis Australia after more than 20 years at the organisation.
He first took on the role of Director of Player Development in 2005, before shortly becoming the Australian Open Tournament Director in 2006. In 2013, he also assumed the position of Tennis Australia’s Chief Executive Officer – holding the dual role until his departure.
During his tenure, Tiley transformed the Australian Open into a cannot-miss event, continuously pushing the boundaries of what was possible and giving fans a reason to come back each year.
On this week’s episode on The Sit-Down podcast, the tennis executive revealed the mentality that motivated him to keep implementing bigger and greater initiatives for the sport in Australia.
“Innovation is not a thing, it’s an attitude,” he explained.
“With the Australian Open, the thing that I was always the most attracted to is doing things differently and pushing the team to do things differently.”
Tiley has adopted this way of thinking since beginning at Tennis Australia and his passion for innovation has only grown since.
Some of the most notable highlights? Changing the court colour-scheme from green to blue, turning the major into a three-week festival, bringing the live broadcast production in-house, creating a courtside bar for patrons to enjoy, installing digital walls in the arenas, and delivering the hugely-successful 1 Point Slam.
Those innovations, and many more, helped cement the Australian Open’s status as a premier global event.
As he begins his new role as Chief Executive Officer of the United States Tennis Association, Tiley still has visions of new frontiers for the 'Happy Slam'.
“If I had my choice for the Australian Open, I would be starting with a blockbuster night on Saturday night, maybe the former champions opening up," he said.
"Then I'd be going into a full day on Sunday and then giving the players enough rest because it's three out of five sets. I'd have the women playing three out of five sets from the quarters onwards.
PODCAST: Listen to Craig Tiley on The Sit-Down
"Every day would be a festival, a minimum of 100,000 people a day for 21 straight days. All the other channels we have, like in music and food, really elevate those and lift those up.
"It rivals with the four weeks of Olympics once every four years pretty easily, so there's plenty of opportunity.”
He knows he leaves behind the right team to make these ideas come to life.
“I think the biggest achievement is putting together the team we put together to deliver the tournament," said Tiley, a former South African Davis Cup captain and US collegiate tennis coach.
"We've got the best people in the world working here. I just love working with all of them and that’s the part I’ll miss for sure the most.
In terms of getting more people with racquets in their hands, Tiley spearheaded the rise of tennis participation in the country with the sport now the second most played nationwide.
During this time, there was also an increase of Australian players breaking in the top 100, as well as Ash Barty collecting three Grand Slam trophies – her feat at Australian Open 2022 being one of his favourite moments to witness.
Even though he’ll now be based on the other side of the world, Tiley promises he won’t remain far away.
“I love this organisation. I love the people in this organisation. I'm not going to miss it because I'm going to stay in touch," he said.
"My objective is to make sure that the Australian Open continues to thrive and the sport continues to thrive like it has before. So whatever role I can continue to play, I will make sure that I play that."
Listen to the full episode of The Sit-Down, a weekly podcast released each Monday featuring an in-depth interview with a notable tennis identity. Subscribe in your favourite podcast player so you never miss an episode.