Tournament director Craig Tiley has declared the 2022 Australian Open as “the best sporting event in the history of our game.”
The Tennis Australia boss made the bold call on the TODAY show this morning, just a few hours after hugging a sweat-drenched, record-breaking Rafael Nadal on an emotionally-charged Rod Laver Arena.
It genuinely was a tournament like no other.
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The Novak Djokovic debacle dominated the build-up as Tiley’s efforts to allow the unvaccinated world No.1 to play were sensationally thwarted by the Australian government.
Increasingly under pressure, Tiley also had to navigate the Peng Shuai protests in Melbourne, eventually backflipping and allowing spectators to wear T-shirts questioning the whereabouts of the Chinese tennis star.
But on the court, the script could not have been written any better for Tiley.
Ash Barty snapped a 44-year drought for Australian women, Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis made doubles sexy and relevant again and then Nadal topped it off with a historic 21st Grand Slam.
“I think it is going to be hard to top it off,” Tiley said.
“It is hard to think this happened and everything else that happened and everything else that happened in between. An amazing two weeks.
“Everyone will reflect and say they probably witnessed the best sporting event in the history of our game.”
Tiley admitted it had been a “rough month” as he reflected on the challenges of running a Grand Slam in the midst of a pandemic.
He was asked by Karl Stefanovic what Nadal’s embrace meant to him.
“I think he was giving everyone that worked at the Australian Open a hug at the moment and I just happened to be standing there,” Tiley said.
“At the end of the day, I think tennis won. This weekend has been a historic weekend, not only for tennis, sport in Australia and particularly having Ash…
“Quite a few high emotional moments for me personally and also the entire team and it was capped off in the early hours of this morning.
“Rafa didn’t leave the court – he was taking pictures on the court while we were breaking it down at 4am this morning. He, too, is someone that will never forget this moment. I know I personally won’t. Our team won’t. There is a lot of excited, pretty tired people this morning.”
Tiley said he hadn’t felt “that tired” and was still running on adrenaline as the tournament came to a close.
“I love this job, I love the people I work with,” Tiley said.
“I’m pretty sad today because it’s come to an end. Yeah, it may have been stressful but that goes with it.”
Stefanovic then asked Tiley how he would top this year’s remarkable event.
“We would never dreamed we would end up like we did today,” Tiley said.
“We hoped. It was a long shot. Rafa came in hoping to play one match. Ash playing at home, always a tremendous amount of pressure. At the very beginning on the first day, I said if there was a situation where it would end up being a dream event at the end, it would be the one we just had. Maybe we are still waking up from that dream.”
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