{"id":502079,"date":"2026-02-25T01:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/502079\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T01:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:04:09","slug":"craig-tiley-announces-tennis-australia-departure-ahead-of-his-move-to-take-over-as-head-of-the-us-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/502079\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Tiley announces Tennis Australia departure ahead of his move to take over as head of the US Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe were the only event globally that continued to go each year under the circumstances we did [including hotel quarantine and strict conditions], and do what we did in an environment that was the most difficult globally,\u201d Tiley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very proud of what we achieved there. We came out of that, and our annual growth rate is 15 per cent year-on-year in the last 10 years. There are very few companies in Australia that can match that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The USTA announced Tiley\u2019s appointment on Wednesday morning (AEDT), with board chair and interim co-CEO Brian Vahaly saying the organisation had prioritised finding a new leader who could accelerate participation growth and help achieve its goal of reaching 35 million players by 2035.<\/p>\n

\u201cCraig brings a rare combination of global credibility at the highest level of the sport and a proven commitment to growing the game at the grassroots,\u201d Vahaly said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat balance is exactly what this moment requires. As we look to fully leverage the power of the US Open as a platform for inspiration and growth, Craig\u2019s leadership and understanding of the entire tennis ecosystem will be invaluable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited to build on our current momentum of six consecutive years of participation growth, and we are confident he is the right leader to guide American tennis into its next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n

There had been significant speculation<\/a> about Tiley\u2019s future since Sportico reported in December<\/a> that USTA officials were in advanced talks with the South African-born powerbroker to be the organisation\u2019s new CEO, replacing Lew Sherr, who accepted a job at the New York Mets.<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

Australian Open boss Craig Tiley will head to America as head of the USTA.Credit: Fiona Hamilton, Tennis Australia<\/p>\n

Tiley will remain in his current role for the next few months and be part of the process to find his successor, or successors, if TA\u2019s board chooses to split the positions into CEO and Australian Open boss again.<\/p>\n

Tiley\u2019s defection to the USTA, which runs the US Open, ends his more than two-decade association with Australian tennis, beginning as TA\u2019s director of player development in 2005.<\/p>\n

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He became the Australian Open\u2019s tournament director the next year before taking over as TA\u2019s CEO in 2013. The Melbourne-based grand slam has become an enormous event, including a record 1,368,043 fans attending this year\u2019s Open across three weeks.<\/p>\n

The USTA contacted Tiley about its vacancy after last year\u2019s US Open, which finished in September.<\/p>\n

Among the top candidates to replace him as Australian Open tournament director is Brit Stephen Farrow, who is the organisation\u2019s chief events officer.<\/p>\n

Farrow is tournament director of the United Cup and was previously director of international events at Great Britain\u2019s governing body, the Lawn Tennis Association, during which he served as tournament director of the Queen\u2019s Club Championships.<\/p>\n

Another option is Peter Johnston<\/a>, who was involved in running the Australian Open alongside Tiley and his predecessor Paul McNamee, and still oversees a number of ATP and WTA events, as well as the Kooyong Classic.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Australian Open has become a summer juggernaut.Credit: Eddie Jim<\/p>\n

Cameron Pearson has impressed with his work at the Brisbane International, and could also be in the mix.<\/p>\n

Tennis Australia\u2019s chief tennis officer Tom Larner is widely viewed as the favourite to earn a promotion to CEO if Tiley\u2019s dual role is split.<\/p>\n

Another contender is Craig Morris, an Australian who has worked at the USTA for the past decade, currently as CEO of coaching after being involved in community tennis initially.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve laid out our strategy until 2030, so we\u2019ve laid out what we need to do to operationalise that,\u201d Tiley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already decided our hero initiatives each year, and we\u2019ve done so much groundwork that it\u2019s going to be in great shape \u2013 and \u201927 will be a bigger year than \u201926.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very excited about the future of TA, and I would not be leaving if it was in bad shape, or it needed someone to put it in good shape. We\u2019re leaving when it\u2019s at the top of its opportunity to perform, but it\u2019s also the first foundation of the next level it\u2019s going to go to.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been the highlight of my career, and I think it\u2019s going to be perfectly well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiley summed up the top priorities for the person who succeeds him as Australian Open boss as the \u201cfour S\u2019s\u201d: more seats, more shade, more space and more screens.<\/p>\n

There are already discussions between TA, the Victorian government and Collingwood Football Club officials about the Open expanding across the road from Melbourne Park into Olympic Park.<\/p>\n

However, TA\u2019s development performance remains a polarising topic among its community.<\/p>\n

Tiley, who started in performance and played a major role in participation, including the introduction of Hot Shots, said the organisation had come a long way since he first arrived, when there were only a handful of Australian men and women in the top 200.<\/p>\n

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There is a group of emerging women starting to break through after a barren period outside former world No.1 Ash Barty\u2019s grand slam success, but there is concern about the men\u2019s stocks<\/a> behind top-10 star Alex de Minaur.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [player pathway] structure is solid. It ebbs and flows,\u201d Tiley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery country, every nation, goes in cycles. I ran performance for a long time, and I know fairly well that you don\u2019t respond too quickly to a bad cycle, where you\u2019ve got to change everything. The most important thing is to have consistency.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe were the only event globally that continued to go each year under the circumstances we did [including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-502079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}