MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said he is confident Novak Djokovic will return to the season-opening Grand Slam next year after injury ended the 37-year-old’s latest challenge in the semi-finals at Melbourne Park.
Djokovic was jeered by some sections of the crowd when he retired due to a hamstring injury after losing the opening set to Alexander Zverev on Friday.
The Serb, who has won 10 titles at Melbourne Park and is chasing a record 25th Grand Slam crown, sustained the injury in his quarter-final win over Carlos Alcaraz.
“There was some talk about Novak (not coming back here) – Novak will return,” Tiley told Australian media on Monday. “He leaves today and he’s with his family, his team left on Friday.
“We’ll see Novak back and I look forward to catching up with him in the next couple of weeks.”
Djokovic took aim at his critics the day after his exit from the tournament, posting photos of an MRI scan of the injury on social media and Tiley was certain the Serb had done everything possible to be ready for the semi-final.
“He had a good warm-up that morning and his team were confident that he’d be able to get out there and play,” Tiley said.
“I haven’t met a player that does as much pre-preparation and has as big a focus on it as Novak does, and he would do everything he possibly can to get on the court.”
Jannik Sinner and Madison Keys won the men’s and women’s titles as record numbers attended the Australian Open’s latest edition, with more than 1.1 million spectators making their way to Melbourne Park.
However, crowd behaviour made headlines at times during the two-week event and Tiley said organisers would consider capping the number of fans admitted if necessary.
“The objective is, right from the beginning, is that the quality of the experience is the most important thing,” he said.
“Our customer satisfaction scores are higher than they were last year, and we’re going through all those numbers … but so far the initial reports have been very positive.
“If ever there becomes a moment where we’re getting to a number that’s not satisfactory for that experience, we’ll make a change.”
(Reporting by Michael Church , Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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