Julien Benneteau has generated a rather big controversy after accusing the Australian Open organization of helping Roger Federer by scheduling the Swiss to play mainly in the evening.
Novak Djokovic and John Isner defended Federer against the claims of the Frenchman and it’s now time for the Australian Open organization to give its reply.
Why Federer is mostly scheduled during the evening
Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley released the following statement
“In terms of players and their appeal, it needs to be said that Roger Federer is a once-in-a-generation player widely regarded as one of the biggest ‘box office’ athletes in the world. He has been regularly voted Australia’s favorite athlete. The fans demand his appearance in the big stadiums and our broadcasters naturally want his matches to air in prime time. And I don’t think there’s a tournament director in the world who’s not going to take those factors into account when setting the schedule. This is the case with all the big names in tennis, and in sport in general.”
About taking care of the tennis players
Tiley replied also to the allegation that the Australian Open doesn’t attend properly the “other” players to say
“We run our events to the highest standards and reject as well as challenge any claims to the contrary. We also make no secret about working hard to provide the very best experience for all the players at the Australian Open. We will continue to do this. We want players to love our sport, our event and get appropriately rewarded. We put significant resources into looking after all of them and making the Australian Open, and Melbourne, one of their very favourite places to be.
We’ve prided ourselves on really listening to the players and taking into account their needs and priorities, whether it’s the way we operate our transport system, the food we serve, the relaxation and training areas we provide and of course, scheduling matches. There’s no way we can please everyone all the time, and everyone
knows we do everything we can.”
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A long statement from Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley in response to Julien Benneteau’s comments on the scheduling of Roger Federer’s matches. https://t.co/228CFjeCrd pic.twitter.com/HUX1G5NLBM
— Stuart Fraser (@stu_fraser) November 13, 2018
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