Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley is about to find out how influential he is.
Tiley is locked in battle with ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi over the sport’s direction, according to a bombshell Daily Telegraph report from the UK that revealed Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) had made a take-it-or-leave-it $2 billion offer to merge the men’s and women’s tours.
Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley is at odds with ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi’s vision for the sport.Credit: Eamon Gallagher
The Saudi power play, which reportedly has a 90-day expiration period, threatens to interrupt, and even ruin, the traditional lead-up to the Australian Open, with a new Masters 1000 event in the Middle East country to start each season in January a key part of the PIF pitch.
There is also a significant ethical debate, given Saudi Arabia’s abhorrent human rights record. However, that did not stop Rafael Nadal accepting a reported $750 million role to be Saudi Arabia’s tennis ambassador.
The ATP and Saudi Arabian officials also agreed only weeks ago on a five-year deal for PIF to be the naming rights sponsorship of the ATP rankings. The WTA is set to send its end-of-year tour finals to Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh in November.
Tiley and Gaudenzi are drastically opposed on the advent of the Saudi Masters, with the Australian Open boss instead an advocate for the proposed F1-style Premium Tour.
The Premium Tour vision is to bring together 10 elite events, including the grand slams, to form a more streamlined calendar that provides more rest for players, an easier tour for fans to follow, and ideally more money for the sport that could also trickle down to the lower-ranked battlers.
Tiley has maintained a cautious positivity publicly about the Saudis’ interest in tennis, albeit with an asterisk – that any move into the sport was not detrimental to a “long-standing partner”.
Craig Tiley and the $2 billion fight to control world tennis
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13.03.2024
Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley is about to find out how influential he is.
Tiley is locked in battle with ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi over the sport’s direction, according to a bombshell Daily Telegraph report from the UK that revealed Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) had made a take-it-or-leave-it $2 billion offer to merge the men’s and women’s tours.
Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley is at odds with ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi’s vision for the........
© The Sydney Morning Herald
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