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Borrowing a line from former IOC boss Juan Antonio Samaranch, tennis chief Craig Tiley is trumpeting “the perfect Australian Open ever”.
Whereas forecasting formatting tweaks after some imperfect scheduling, Tiley stated document crowds flocking to Melbourne Park and glowing participant suggestions signalled the Open had restored its standing as “the Glad Slam”.
Greater than 1,000,000 spectators attended for the primary time within the historical past of grand slams, with the most important and richest occasion on the Australian sporting calendar climaxing on Sunday night time with a brand new males’s champion topped in Italian sensation Jannik Sinner.
“It has been the perfect Australian Open ever,” Tennis Australia CEO Tiley stated.
“All our metrics exhibits that, from participant suggestions to fan expertise.
“We actually drove exhausting on much more innovation than we usually do.”
Regardless of criticism for nonetheless extra early-morning finishes, Tiley insists the gamers had hailed the Open as “superb”.
Among the many added advantages for the sport’s stars had been a 13 per cent prize cash enhance to a $105 million whole purse, coaches being given per diem funds for the primary time, and a state-of-the-art new health club and restoration centre.
“We centered on the coach expertise,” Tiley stated.
“So we offer the coaches with the quiet room, with coaches bins, information room entry to all information in actual time.
“We paid for the coaches’ meals the entire time and we actually celebrated the position that the coaches play, and the gamers really feel actually good about that as a result of it takes the strain off a little bit bit too.
“We spent tens of millions of {dollars} placing within the world-class ice baths within the males’s and girls’s locker rooms and on the restoration centre.
“We added extra medical companies. There’s nothing you could not get from a medical viewpoint now.”
The pampered gamers even had entry to Novak Djokovic’s elaborate regeneration pod, which the Serb fortunately shared together with his rivals at Melbourne Park.
Apparently it was an enormous hit among the many taking part in group.
For all of the success of the occasion, although, Tiley is conscious of the adverse noise round scheduling.
He dominated out introducing a Wimbledon-style midnight curfew or bringing the night time periods ahead, however stated measures to hurry up the sport must be addressed by world tennis chiefs.
“We won’t begin earlier than seven due to the information in Australia so that you rule that out,” Tiley stated.
“And one factor that we are able to by no means do is predict the size of a match.
“You are not going to suppose Coco (Gauff) goes to play for three-and-a-half hours (as in her quarterfinal with Marta Kostyuk).
“So we additionally try to put schedules on what we predict our matches will go to.”
Tiley stated officers would subsequent yr take a look at making an attempt to “tighten” instances that matches begin, but additionally stated the game’s chiefs ought to overview the usage of the shot clock.
“Typically the shot clock begins means too late,” he stated. “That ought to be tightened up.
“Additionally, as a sport we have to take into account — once more — not having lets. Having lets added 15 hours to the match throughout all occasions.
“So there will likely be tweaks subsequent yr, however you are still going to get that one-off loopy state of affairs the place a match finishes at three within the morning.”
AAP
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