“Australian Open Tournament Director Craig Tiley unveiled an ‘exclusive’ update this week, announcing that Rafael Nadal is confirmed to participate in the 2023 season-opening Grand Slam.”
Tiley announced that 22-time major champion Nadal will be on the entry list for next year’s tournament after recovering from hip surgery. The Spaniard underwent an arthroscopic procedure on his left psoas tendon in June and his recovery time was expected to be five months.
With the ATP Tour season coming to an end in November, Nadal will only make his comeback in early 2024 and Tiley confidently revealed on Wednesday that he will play at next year’s Australian Open.
“We can reveal exclusively here that Rafa will be back,” he said. “He’s been off for most of the year, and in talking to him over the last few days he confirmed he will be back, which we’re really excited about. That’s awesome.”
But Tiley has a history of stating in his traditional October press conference that big-name players will feature at the Australian Open the following year only for those players to end up withdrawing.
Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Serena Williams are a few of the players who were mooted to play, but they ended up watching from the sidelines.
Here is a look at five times where Tiley got it wrong.
Andy Murray – 2018 Australian Open
Back in October 2017, Tiley revealed that Murray was raring to go ahead of the 2018 Australian Open after he struggled with a hip injury during the latter half of the 2017 season.
“On the men’s side, there has been a lot of concern and conjecture around Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Kei Nishikori,” Tiley said.
“I can tell you that in talking to Andy, he has been training and he is preparing for having a great year in 2018.
“How much would this year have hurt him, to watch over the entire year Roger [Federer] and Rafa [Nadal] share four Grand Slam titles – he would not have liked that.
“As competitive as Andy is, we know he’s back and he’ll want to improve his current ranking of number three in the world and getting back to No 1.”
Murray announced in early 2018 that he would not compete at that year’s Australian Open and, to be fair to Tiley, the Scot only made the decision to withdraw from the tournament at the last minute as he was hopeful of playing.
Serena Williams – 2018 Australian Open
Much like speculation over Murray’s return to competitive tennis in 2018, there were also doubts about whether or not Serena Williams would return to defend her Australian Open title.
Williams won the title in 2017 as she defeated her sister Venus Williams in the final while already pregnant with her first child Alexis Olympia.
After giving birth in September, Williams eyed a return in early 2018 and Tiley was once again confident she would play Down Under.
“Serena will be back,” he said. “We look forward to welcoming her and again go on that journey of breaking the all-time record for the most number of Grand Slams.”
Unfortunately for Tiley, there was no big welcome-back ceremony as the tennis great withdrew from the tournament.
Andy Murray – 2020 Australian Open
With Murray undergoing hip surgery in 2019 after his first-round exit from the Australian Open, he once again set his sights on returning to the tournament the following year.
And Tiley was at it again, stating on Australia’s Triple M radio station: “For sure Andy will be here. I was on the phone to his agent this morning. He is going to be in Australia early.
“He is ready to return. Remember he said goodbye a year ago. It’s great in that period he had surgery and has rebounded really well.”
Murray was unable to return.
Roger Federer – 2021 Australian Open
The great Roger Federer struggled with a knee injury in 2020 as he missed the French Open and US Open (Wimbledon was cancelled due to Covid-19).
“We’ve been talking to them [top players] every week,” Tiley said in a video conference. “Roger [Federer] confirmed he’ll be here. Serena also will be here, obviously trying to get Margaret Court’s [career Grand Slam singles titles] record.”
Tiley, unfortunately, got it wrong once again as Federer failed to recover from his knee injury, but at least he was spot on with Serena as she played in 2021.
The 2020 Australian Open proved to be Federer’s last as he also didn’t compete in 2022 before retiring in September of that year.
Serena Williams – 2022 Australian Open
After picking up a leg injury at Wimbledon in 2021, Serena Williams missed the US Open that year but Tiley revealed that she would play at the 2022 Australian Open.
He was once again a busy man on the phone as he stated in his October press conference: “I have been on the phone with Serena in the last 48 hours and she is preparing to be here in January.”
Serena Williams ended up not making an appearance at the 2022 Australian Open.
