Craig tiley biography

What happened in January with Novak Djokovic in Australia was the most ‘complicated’ experience of his life. Rafael Nadal may well still be playing in And the current Davis Cup situation ‘hurts’, because the story should not have ended like this. Who says all this? Craig Tiley, CEO of Tennis Australia and director of the Australian Open, in an extensive interview with CLAY in which he warns of a danger.

‘Tennis must not become complacent,’ says the year-old South African, who is watching with interest the moves by the ATP and WTA with the “Tennis Ventures” project and is cautious about predicting the role in the sport&#;s power of someone very important in tennis &#; Roger Federer.

India&#;s absence from the ATP circuit is also analysed by Tiley, head of a tournament that consistently ranks among the most beloved by players and spectators.

&#; What can we expect for the Australian Open ?

&#; We have a mandate that a minimum of 50 per cent of the site for the fan needs to change every year, which is big, because some things you cannot change. You cannot change permanent buildings, courts, that kind of stuff, but that&#;s included in that. So we&#;re constantly pushing the experience, and we&#;re currently working with the team on some very transformative and innovative fan experiences and also a combination of player experiences with them. We&#;ve got a list of about 50 of them, but we make a final decision, and we&#;ll pick our top five, and then we&#;ll go and execute on those top five. And that&#;s the normal pace or the normal program we go through each year. So you can be guaranteed you&#;ll see some more transformative things. This past year we tested crowd movement during the games. We tested the bar on the court, which probably took a few days to get used to, but then the fans loved it.&

Craig Tiley

CEO, Tennis Australia

Craig Tiley is recognised as one of Australia’s most innovative and forward thinking chief executives. His charismatic and passionate nature combined with his business acumen has leveraged him to the forefront of sports administration and the leader behind Australia’s largest and most successful international sporting event.

Craig has been Tournament Director of the Australian Open since and was appointed CEO of Tennis Australia (TA) in His relationship with the playing group and relentless focus on improvement has transformed the Australian Open into the players’ favourite Grand Slam and Australia’s favourite sporting event, bringing , people through the gates annually, delivering more than $m in direct economic benefit to Australia and reaching a global audience of more than million households.

His enthusiasm, combined with his personal values of teamwork, loyalty, excellence and humility has seen the doubling of TA’s revenue to more than $m, expanded the reach into Asia and the creation of an internal media unit which includes host broadcast, production and distribution of content internationally. Craig is also a Male Champion of Change, passionate about shifting mindsets around gender equality and diversity, both on the tennis court and in the workplace.

Initially recruited to TA in to head up Tennis Australia’s High Performance team, his role was expanded to Director of Tennis in His responsibility for the sport at a national level saw him introduce the National Academy system across all states, the expansion of Hot Shots (one of the nation’s most successful sporting starter programs), a new international short form of tennis, FAST4, a national body for coaches, a multi-million dollar facilities program, world class athlete support services, the expansion of the AO Series and the $m redevelopment of Melbourne Park, including the enviable facilities of the National Tennis Centre.

Prior to joining TA, Cr

In the fourth in this series of pieces on South African sports administrators who have succeeded abroad, Dylan Rogers profiles Craig Tiley, the Chief Executive Officer of Tennis Australia and the Tournament Director of the Australian Open.

ITF Chief Operating Officer Kelly Fairweather isn’t the only South African making waves in international tennis administration.

In fact, he and Craig Tiley have much in common.

Born within a year of each other, both studied at Stellenbosch University in the s, where they either overlapped or just missed each other, with Tiley wrapping up his Maties stint in and Fairweather going on to obtain a Master’s degree in Human Movements there in

Tiley would go on to move to the United States in to enroll in the Professional Tennis Management program at Tyler Junior College in Texas, and finished his studies at the University of Texas at Tyler in the lates, where he earned his own Master&#;s degree in Kinesiology.

Interestingly, the paths of the two Maties graduates have crossed once again, as both now hold senior roles in international tennis. That’s after both made the transition from sports coaching, with Tiley’s first high-profile gig coming in /, when he was appointed head tennis coach at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

That was to prove a successful partnership, with Tiley remaining in the role through to , during which time he led the Illinois men&#;s team to victory in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in and , and reached the championship match three other times in , , and Tiley also led Illinois to a 32–0 record and a NCAA Men&#;s Tennis Championship in , to go with two ‘National Coach of the Year’ awards he picked up along the way.

During his time at Illinois, Tiley coached a number of future professionals, but is probably best remembered for recruiting fellow South African and future two-time Grand Slam finalist Kevin Anderson to the university’s te

South African tennis player

Craig Tiley (born c) is a South African tennis executive and retired U.S. college tennis coach. Tiley is the current CEO of Tennis Australia, which is the governing body that oversees tennis in Australia. He is also the Director of the Australian Open. As a college coach he led the Illinois Fighting Illini men's tennis team to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I national championship in and ITA National Team Indoor Championships in and

Early years

Tiley was born in Durban, South Africa and attended high school in Johannesburg. He began playing tennis at the age of 12 and achieved a top ranking as an amateur in South Africa, which enabled Tiley to play in satellite tournaments throughout Europe from to

College and military service

Tiley attended the Stellenbosch University in Stellenbosch, South Africa where he played for the Maties men's tennis team from to He graduated from Stellenbosch with a bachelor's degree in economics in After graduating, Tiley completed compulsory military service by serving in the South African Army. He then moved to the United States in to enroll in the Professional Tennis Management program at Tyler Junior College located in Tyler, Te