Pat Cash believes the Australian Open has become a “facade” to mask the cracks within Australia’s grassroots systems, as he doubled down on his criticism of Tennis Australia.
Cash exposed the “real issues” within the development systems in Australian tennis last week, calling out the lack of rising stars that the nation has to offer at the moment.
The Australian great’s comments came just days after Craig Tiley’s resignation as chief executive at the Tennis Australia, a tenure which Cash applauded.
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But it was the “old boys club” that is in charge at Tennis Australia that angered him.
“We know that Craig Tiley has done a great job of the Australian Open, but he’s moved on. He was all encompassing,” he told Triple M’s Mick in the Morning.
“There wasn’t a lot of opportunities for other people – there’s loads and loads of champions in Australia that would love to have a say and at least be involved – but we don’t really get a look in.
Pat Cash speaks on Triple M’s Mick in the Morning. Triple M
“The Australian Open is great but it’s a facade that’s hiding over some cracks.
“People go, ‘Oh, the Australian Open, Australian tennis must be unbelievable’ … well, no, we’ve got some real issues.
“Let’s just have an open discussion about it with some of these legends.”
The 60-year-old confirmed he would like to offer his opinion if he was given the chance.
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Cash then revealed he has been “inundated” by messages of supports from coaches across the country, who are looking to develop Australia’s next grand slam champion.
As it stands at the moment, Australia only has 12 men and 11 women inside the top 200 on the world rankings. Of that group, only five are under the age of 25 – all women.
In the junior level, Cash recognised no one can identify the next big rising star.
“Look at the players coming through – name a player coming through that’s a young great player? Yeah, silence,” he said.
“This has been going on for years and now it’s the time to do something about it with somebody new coming in.
Cash added: “In tennis, to be a champion, you have to have everything.
“Some players (like Nick Kyrgios) definitely have the talent. How do you define talent? Talent is the mental capacity to hang in there and be able to do this week-in week-out and fight through matches when you are in trouble – that’s talent.
“It is like a shot, you can improve it. Some players do, some players don’t.”
Alex de Minaur plays a backhand in his charity match against Carlos Alcaraz of Spain. Getty
Cash then turned his focus to top-ranked Australian Alex de Minaur as an example.
“Alex is an unbelievable fighter and a great athlete; he doesn’t have the power – he still hits the ball pretty damn hard – but generally speaking he is playing against some of these big boys like (Carlos) Alcaraz, (Jannik) Sinner and (Novak) Djokovic … they’re something else,” Cash added.
“They are just extraordinary athletes.”
Triple M host Mick Molloy told the Wimbledon winner that he has noticed the removal of tennis courts around his local area, a problem that only added to Cash’s argument.
“It is a huge part of it. In Sydney as well, the tennis courts are all gone,” Cash replied.
“There were some that I used to play at, quite big clubs, and they went broke and shut down – and yet tennis is regarded as the healthiest sport in the world.
“It just another subject to talk about.”