Tennis Australia Looks For A Better Airline Deal Than Virgin Australia

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 7th January 2014

French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros

Tennis Australia Looks For A Better Airline Deal Than Virgin Australia

epa03722443 A ball on the court during the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 29 May 2013. EPA/YOAN VALAT EPA/YOAN VALAT |

Tennis Australia president Stephen Healy says the organization is in negotiations with another airline to replace Virgin Australia as a major sponsor of the Australian Open. Board level negotiations are ongoing to replace Virgin.

“I think the Australian Open is strong enough and if the deal isn’t right at the time, we are strong enough to hold off and wait for the right company that is aligned with what we want to do, at a fair price.”

Healy also expressed confidence that Craig Tiley will do fine running both Tennis Australia and the Australian Open. Tiley was promoted to CEO after Steve Wood’s resignation last August.

“When we talked to him about taking on the role, I said, ‘We want you to keep doing it’. That is what Wimbledon does. That is what the French Federation does,” Healy told the Australian. “His relationship with the players is as good as anyone in the world, so why would you take a bloke out of his strength, which is one of the strengths of the organization, so why would you want to change that? The board never ever considered that.”

Healy said that while Hopman Cup can do a better job of attracting fans, he isn’t that concerned that there was a 20 percent drop this year. However, it still drew its second highest crowd of 84,050.

The event was unable to secure one of the men’s Big 4 or a top 3 women’s player. It did manage to recruit Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Agnieszka Radwanska.

“You would love always to have a No 1, a No 2, because there is no doubt that has an impact. We will always be looking for that but I think our guys have done a great job,” he said. “We are pretty happy but we think there are things we can do better next year,” Healy said.

Topics: 10sballs.com, Agniezska Radwanska, Australian Open, Craig Tiley, Hopman Cup, Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Stephen Healy, Steve Wood, Tennis, Tennis Australia, Tennis News, Virgin Australia