Australian Open chief defends tournament’s January date | Tennis news

Tournament director Craig Tiley has described the ridiculous and outlandish requests to change the timing of the Australian Open to give players a longer off-season.

Tiley was responding to an Australian media report that the first Grand Slam of the season could be moved away from January and the peak of the Australian summer.

I read it. “I thought it was absolutely ridiculous – a strange claim,” Tiley said. You talk to every player, this is the season. It starts in January. It starts here in Australia.

Tiley was speaking at an event at Melbourne Park on Monday to mark the start of Australian Open qualifying. Australian player Alex de Minaur, who also attended the event, said it was no secret that the professional season was long, but said he was enjoying the start of January.

Alex has a good point about the length of the season, Tiley said. The sport needs to come together and look at its length.

It ends in Davis Cup late on the men’s side and not so late on the women’s side, but I think it’s a long season. We’ve talked about it for a long time.

But Australia is summer, Australia is January and this event, from the players’ point of view, is one of their favorite places to play.

Some commentators have linked the withdrawal of leading players, including men’s No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, from this year’s Open to a short off-season. Alacaraz and veteran Venus Williams will both miss the tournament due to injuries. Many players also face the challenge of adjusting from the Northern Hemisphere winter to the Australian summer.

Tiley said the players had plenty of time to prepare and adjust.

They have come here before, now saw players here for six weeks, seven weeks and the preparation for the Australian summer is very normalized, he said. They know what they have to do.

De Minaur said the length of the season needs to be revised.

It’s no secret that the years are very long years, said de Minaur. You play tournaments all year round, you finish pretty late. It depends on your schedule and everything.

If there was a little more time in the off-season, I’m sure a lot of players would love it. But at the same time he was kind of used to it. I’ve been doing it for a couple of years where you finish quite late and then get straight into the thick of things.

Tiley also said that for the first time since 2020, players would not be required to report positive tests for COVID-19. But he said players would be encouraged to stay away if they became ill.

This story has been published from the news agency feed without changes to the text.