Australian Open boss addresses if Novak Djokovic could get stadium named after him

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Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley says he is "a supporter" of Novak Djokovic getting a stadium named behind him at Melbourne Park but also highlighted that it's not up to the tournament. In 2008, Djokovic became a Grand Slam champion after beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the Australian Open final. Since then, Djokovic has won nine more Australian Open titles and he now has a record 10 titles at Melbourne Park. At the Australian Open, the Centre Court is named behind Australian tennis icon Rod Laver. After Rod Laver Stadium, the second biggest court at the Australian Open is Margaret Court Arena - named behind Australian tennis legend and former 24-time Grand Slam champion Margaret Court.  

Australian Open boss Tiley on if Djokovic could get a stadium named after him

“You’re the second person who’s asked me that today. Look, I mean, ultimately the naming of the arena is not my decision or tennis Australia’s because we….a lot of people don’t really understand the Wimbledon and the French and the US Open, they own the facility in which they run their events. We lease it and the Govt, the Victorian Govt owns our facilities and we lease the facilities from them and we are fortunate that they invest in those facilities but we don’t own them. So sometime in September, December we move in, we roll out everything for the event and by the middle of February we move out and then right after a year it’s run by a trust for concerts and all that. So you don’t see these tennis courts in the stadium. We wish we did own it because we think we could have some more creativity on running more tennis events throughout a year. Yeah, the government, they do a great job on the presynched and it’s a great presynched infrastructure the Govt’s put together, it’s magnificent. But yeah, it’s a different construct to the other event. So naming of an arena would be a combination of input that would have to happen. But I would be certainly a supporter of recognizing Novak in some way, unbelievable achievements here in Australia," Tiley said on the Rock n Roll Tennis Podcast.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/rVYwt3c

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