Newly-appointed USTA boss Craig Tiley has revealed he would still like to see some big changes implemented at the Australian Open after leaving Tennis Australia.

Tiley has started his new role as the CEO of the United States Tennis Association (USTA) after concluding his work at Tennis Australia last week.

The South African had been the CEO of Tennis Australia since 2013, having served as the Australian Open tournament director since 2006. He joined Tennis Australia in 2005 as the director of player development.

On his first day in his new job at the USTA, Tiley said: “The USTA has created a great platform to inspire further growth in tennis participation.

“We want to work with everyone within the tennis family to grow the sport beyond what anyone thought possible.”

While Tiley will be looking ahead to the 2026 US Open, he has declared that there is “plenty of opportunity” to improve the season’s first Grand Slam in Melbourne.

Speaking on the Australian Open’s The Sit-Down podcast, Tiley said: “If I had my choice for the Australian Open, I would be starting with a blockbuster night on Saturday night, maybe the former champions opening up.

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“Then I’d be going into a full day on Sunday and then giving the players enough rest because it’s three out of five sets. I’d have the women playing three out of five sets from the quarters onwards.

“Every day would be a festival, a minimum of 100,000 people a day for 21 straight days. All the other channels we have, like in music and food, really elevate those and lift those up.

“It rivals with the four weeks of Olympics once every four years pretty easily, so there’s plenty of opportunity.”

This is not the first time Tiley has called for the best-of-five set format to be introduced at women’s Grand Slam events.

During the 2026 Australian Open, Tiley told the AAP: “It’s something we should put on the agenda and start talking to the players about it because there’s some matches in those last rounds which would have been fascinating had they been three out of five sets.

“Now I don’t know whether the players would want to do it or not, but it is something we need to consider on the women’s side.”

Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina and Amanda Anisimova all revealed they would prefer to keep the current best-of-three format when asked about Tiley’s proposal in February.

During the Qatar Open, Swiatek said: “I think with the world right now that is kind of, like, speeding up, I don’t really think it makes sense for us to play such long matches. Especially when I think it would be tough to keep the quality up throughout the whole match.”

At the same event, Gauff said: “I like the way two-out-of-three is. I think best-of-five wouldn’t be terrible, but I don’t know. I feel indifferent towards the question, honestly.

“I like the way it is right now. Two-out-of-three feels right. I can be home at a good time. I feel like best-of-five we’re going to be out there until 5:00 a.m. like every day.”

Aryna Sabalenka, though, said she would be in favour of best-of-five set women’s tennis as she claimed it could be an advantage for her, despite having opposed the change in July 2025.

Speaking in Indian Wells in March, Sabalenka said: “Let’s do that. Yeah, let’s do that. I feel like I would have probably more Grand Slams.

“I feel like physically I’m really strong, and I’m pretty confident that my body can handle that. So let’s do it.”

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