Alexander Zverev was heckled during his Australian Open final speech (Image: Getty)
The boss of the Australian Open has defended Alex Zverev and insisted will return to the tournament next year.
The German world No.2 lost his third Grand Slam final to and was then heckled by a female fan over past allegations of domestic abuse.
The spectator was ejected from the Rod Laver Arena after shouting: “Australia Believes Olya and Brenda!
The case brought by his former partner Brenda Patea was settled out of court with no admission of guilt in June last year.
And speaking on Monday after Sinner paraded the trophy in Albert Park, Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley said: “I thought that gave us all a lesson on how you respond to disruption and he has moved
“He has got a great deal of humility and empathy behind the scenes. He treats the staff extremely well. And we talk about Sascha and our experience with him and it is a very special one.
“She was disruptive to the players in that instance, to the rest of the fans that were enjoying the rest of the final, rightly so, she should be evicted because we don’t tolerate behaviour that is designed to be disruptive and that’s what her behaviour was designed to do.”
Ten-time champion Djokovic pulled out of his semi-final with Zverev on Friday – and he posted a scan of the tear in his upper left thigh for “all the sports injury ‘experts’ out there”.
The Serbian superstar, who turns 38 in May, admitted it could have been his final appearance at Melbourne Park. But Tiley claimed: “There was some talk about Novak – Novak will return. He leaves today, his family, his team left on Friday, and we will see Novak back. I look forward to catching up with him in a couple of weeks.”
Craig Tiley is confident Novak Djokovic will return to the Australian Open (Image: Getty)
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Fred Perry has a statue at and is honoured at Roland Garros. And South African Tiley, 63, said he was open to the idea of a statue of Djokovic in Melbourne Park
“I think the way we’ve got the celebration of the Australians in the hall of fame is great, but I think we’ve decided we’re a global event,” he said.
“He’s won this event 10 times, and we all get along great with Novak and his team. They’re actually fun to be around, and he’s so highly competitive walking on the court – he wants to do nothing but win.”
The director of the also wants to break the record for the biggest tennis crowd ever by staging a match in the 100,000-capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground next to Melbourne Park. and played “The Match in Africa: in front of 51,954 spectators at the Cape Town Stadium in 2020. “I think it’d be great – put a tennis court in the middle,” he told the Melbourne Age.
“We could put something together, and you could potentially have the biggest tennis audience ever in the history of the world.
“We could have an exhibition one night, and you could bring back all the greats. You could have the two best players in the world play each other. It would be great content.”