Australian Open dates not about to budge: Tiley

Craig Tiley on Monday laid down the law on any proposed date change for the Australian Open, insisting that the January tournament weeks are written in stone.

In what is nearly an annual knock-back of tennis calendar reform initiatives, the tennis boss said the Melbourne Grand Slam should remain exactly where it is.

He admitted the 10-month tennis season – not counting December’s rich play-for-pay Middle east exhibitions – is too long but called on those on the back end of the calendar to make any changes to decrease the workload.

“I thought it was absolutely ridiculous – a bizarre claim,” Tiley said of recent calls to make a change in the Aussie dates from the height of the Southern summer during school holidays.

“You talk to every player, this is the season. It starts in January. It starts here in Australia.

“The sport does need to get together and look at the length of (the season).

“(Tennis) finishes with Davis Cup late on the men’s side (November) and not as late on the women’s side (October) but I do think it’s a long season. 

“We’ve been talking about that for a long time.”

The South African-born administrator added: “But Australia is the summer, Australia is January and this event is, from the players’ perspective, one of their favourite places to play.

“They’re coming here earlier, we’re now seeing players here for six weeks, for seven weeks and the preparation for the Australian summer is very normalised – they know what they need to do.”