Craig Tiley clears reports on Djokovic letter: "unfair criticism"
Craig Tiley revealed in an interview with Fox Sports how the story around the alleged list with Novak Djokovic's request really came about.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Feb 27, 2021, 06:04 pm
It was the first really big excitement of the tennis year 2021. And that although no tennis was played in those days. On the journey to Down Under, where last week a multi-week stop of the ATP tour came to an end, positive COVID-19 cases became known on the flights. All inmates consequently had to go into a "hard quarantine" and were not allowed to leave their hotel room for two weeks.
A perfect preparation for a strenuous Grand Slam tournament obviously looks different. Novak Djokovic also knows that, and he promptly turned to tournament director Craig Tiley to negotiate possible measures that should at least offer the players concerned some comfort in the difficult situation. As was reported by many sides at the beginning, it is said to have been a list of "demands" on the part of the industry leader.
In fact, as Craig Tiley has now revealed to Fox Sports : "Behind the scenes, he sent me a WhatsApp message when they were running their quarantine program in Adelaide and he had a bunch of suggestions to try To help the 72 athletes who were in isolated quarantine here, half of which was impractical and would not be allowed and the other half was possible, "said the head of Tennis Australia.
Tiley excited about Djokovic
Apparently someone from the ATP or his team "leaked" this - which, according to Tiley, led to this crooked look: "It looked like he had sent a list of demands, which was probably an unfair criticism of him since we conducted an open dialogue, "says Tiley, who is very enthusiastic about the commitment of the world number one and series winner at the Australian Open.
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"Behind the scenes, my conversations with him have always been very good. I have to admit, I've found him better than ever this year, even though it was a stressful time and he took a lot of hits from people," Tiley said . "I think that in many ways he is just trying to help others and sometimes he just doesn't get the timing right to do that. At the end of the day he's a remarkable athlete."