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Craig Tiley: Family, Salary, and USTA CEO Move Explained

Cooper Anderson White • 2026-10-14 • Reviewed by Sofia Lindberg

Most tennis administrators stay behind the scenes; Craig Tiley made the Australian Open the tournament every Australian argues about each January. The United States Tennis Association announced on February 24, 2026, that Tiley — the man who led Tennis Australia from 2013 to 2026 and turned the Australian Open into a global event — will be its next chief executive (United States Tennis Association (U.S. governing body)). The hard part, as with most tennis executives, is separating the confirmed dates and roles from the private details that stay off the record.

Age: 63 ·
Tenure at Tennis Australia: 2013–2026 ·
Role: Former CEO and Australian Open Tournament Director ·
New Position: USTA CEO (from July 2026)

Quick snapshot

1Confirmed facts
2What’s unclear
3Timeline signal
  • 2005–2026: a 21-year Tennis Australia career (USTA (U.S. governing body))
  • February 2026: USTA announcement and Tennis Australia confirmation (ESPN (sports network))
  • July 20, 2026: first day in Orlando (USTA (U.S. governing body))
4What’s next

Seven rows, one pattern: the public record is detailed on dates and titles, while the private numbers — compensation, net worth, family specifics — stay off the ledger.

Field Detail
Full name Craig Tiley
Age 63
Tenure at Tennis Australia 2013–2026
Grand Slam roles Former Tennis Australia CEO and Australian Open tournament director (ABC News Australia (public broadcaster))
New role USTA chief executive officer
Spouse Alicia Tiley, an American whose family lives in Chicago (Nine Network (Australian broadcaster))
Residence Melbourne, Australia — home being sold ahead of U.S. move (Sports Business Journal (industry trade publication))

How many children does Craig Tiley have?

News coverage of Tiley’s move includes one detailed family portrait: reporting by the Nine Network identifies three children — a daughter, Marlowe, and twin sons, Archer and Weston (Nine Network (Australian broadcaster)).

That detail is reported rather than officially confirmed. Neither the USTA nor Tennis Australia lists his children in the statements reviewed here, and Tiley has not given a public count in the coverage examined for this article.

  • Reported children: Marlowe (daughter), Archer and Weston (twin sons)

Is Craig Tiley married?

  • Yes — married to Alicia Tiley, known in reporting as Ali
  • She is American, and her family lives in Chicago

Tiley has described the USTA move as a personal decision tied to bringing his family closer to relatives in the United States. The federation appointment gives that family a practical anchor in Orlando.

How many times has Craig Tiley been married?

  • Public reporting references one marriage, to Alicia
  • No earlier marriage appears in the coverage reviewed for this article

The public record shows one marriage. That is the extent of what can be stated as fact, and it matches Tiley’s own framing of the move: this is about the family he has now.

The catch: Tiley’s family picture in the press is built on one network’s reporting, not a federation fact sheet. If the children’s names matter to you, treat them as reported details, not confirmed ones.

Who is the CEO of the Australian Open tennis?

The short answer is that the job is in transition. Tiley joined Tennis Australia in 2005, became Australian Open tournament director in 2006, added the CEO title in 2013, and resigned after accepting the USTA position (Tennis Australia (national federation)).

Tennis Australia confirmed the departure and its replacement process is already underway.

  • Who was CEO: Craig Tiley (2013–2026)
  • Who runs the search: Egon Zehnder, announced by Tennis Australia

What is Craig Tiley’s salary?

  • Not publicly disclosed by Tennis Australia
  • Not disclosed in the USTA appointment materials either

Any salary figure online is an estimate. Neither federation has confirmed a number, and Tiley has not discussed his compensation publicly.

Craig Tiley net worth

  • No verified net worth has been published in the sources reviewed
  • Reported estimates circulate without a traceable basis

The accurate label for Tiley’s net worth is “undisclosed.” Everything else is guesswork.

Craig Tiley USTA CEO

The USTA’s stated reason for the hire is participation, not just results at the top of the game. Tiley’s job is to make American tennis bigger, not just more decorated.

Bottom line: Craig Tiley’s Australian Open titles and Tennis Australia tenure are the confirmed part of the record; his exact salary and net worth were never disclosed, and the USTA’s 35-million-player goal is the metric that will decide whether the move pays off.

What this means: Australian tennis loses the man who built the AO’s modern commercial scale, and the CEO door at Tennis Australia now has a search firm’s name on it.

How much does an AO winner get?

The Australian Open is one of tennis’s four Grand Slams, and its prize money pool is consistently among the biggest conversations of the tennis calendar. Exact singles winner’s payouts for 2026 were not part of the transition materials reviewed here.

Why this matters

Every January the AO winner’s cheque makes news; every January, the teenagers sprinting between points do the paid, unglamorous work that keeps that spectacle alive.

The more frequent question is about the ball kids who keep the tournament moving. At the Australian Open, ball boys and girls receive payment for their services, and the tournament’s ball-kid program runs with age requirements for applicants.

Do the ball boys get paid at the Australian Open?

  • Yes — AO ball kids are paid for their tournament work
  • The program sets age and fitness requirements

How do you become a ball boy at the Aus Open?

  • Entry runs through Tennis Australia’s ball-kid selection program
  • Age and fitness eligibility rules apply to applicants

How old are ball boys in tennis?

  • Age requirements vary by tournament
  • The Australian Open program sets its own eligibility criteria rather than a single global age

The trade-off: prize money makes the headlines, but the ball-kid payroll is the part of the operation fans actually touch — and the part that varies most sharply between Slams.

What is the bra rule at Wimbledon?

Wimbledon’s dress code requires players to wear white — and the rule explicitly reaches undergarments. The so-called “bra rule” is the informal name for that requirement: colored bras or undershirts visible on court have been challenged under the all-white standard.

It is not a ban on one garment; it is a broad dress-code standard that players, umpires, and referees apply when something visible breaks the color rule.

Why was this bra banned at Wimbledon?

  • No item called a “bra” is on a banned list
  • The rule requires predominantly white undergarments, so colored sports bras get flagged

How much do ball boys and girls get paid at Wimbledon?

  • Wimbledon’s ball-kid compensation model is separate from the Australian Open’s paid program
  • The exact pay structure was not part of the sources reviewed for this article
The paradox

Wimbledon polices the color of undergarments; the Australian Open pays its ball kids. Same sport, different ideas of what deserves a rulebook line.

Bottom line: Wimbledon’s all-white dress code reaches undergarments — so any player wearing a colored sports bra on court can be asked to change, making the “bra rule” a dress-code matter, not a wardrobe ban.

The pattern: Wimbledon spends its rulebook energy on fabric color; the Australian Open spends its energy on scale. Tiley’s USTA move means the sport’s two rule cultures are about to be shaped by one executive who has worked inside both.

Who are some of Australia’s most famous tennis players?

Australia’s tennis identity rests on a short set of names that come up in every conversation about the sport’s great nations. Rod Laver, Margaret Court, and Evonne Goolagong Cawley anchor the historical list; Pat Rafter, Lleyton Hewitt, and Ash Barty carry the modern thread.

  • Rod Laver
  • Margaret Court
  • Evonne Goolagong Cawley
  • Pat Rafter
  • Lleyton Hewitt
  • Ash Barty

Tiley’s Tennis Australia tenure covers the most recent names on that list, including Barty’s rise to world No. 1.

Why this matters: Tiley leaves a country that produced those names to run a federation trying to manufacture the next ones — and 35 million players by 2035 is the target he has been hired to hit.

Timeline: Tiley’s road from Melbourne to Orlando

Four dates matter; the through-line is that the arc climbs for 21 years and lands in Orlando in under five months.

  • 2013 — Becomes Tennis Australia CEO and Australian Open tournament director (ABC News Australia (public broadcaster))
  • February 24, 2026 — USTA announces Tiley as its next CEO (USTA (U.S. governing body))
  • February 25, 2026 — Tennis Australia confirms the departure (Tennis Australia (national federation))
  • July 20, 2026 — Tiley starts in Orlando (USTA (U.S. governing body))
  • 2026 (planned) — Family relocation to the U.S. (Sports Business Journal (industry trade publication))

The pattern: the announcement-to-arrival window was about five months — short enough to signal urgency, long enough for Tennis Australia to start the search for a successor.

Confirmed vs. unclear: what to trust

The low-confidence label on this story is not about the big dates; it is about the personal layer around them.

Confirmed

  • Tiley is 63
  • He led Tennis Australia from 2013 to 2026
  • He was Australian Open tournament director
  • He was appointed USTA CEO on February 24, 2026
  • He started in Orlando on July 20, 2026

Still unclear

  • Exact number of children (reported as three)
  • Exact salary and net worth
  • Transition details at Tennis Australia after his departure
  • Timing of the Melbourne home sale
  • Who will replace him at Tennis Australia

The implication: the professional biography is on the record; the family and money details are not. In a story this public, that distinction is the most trustworthy part of the coverage.

What Tiley and Tennis Australia are saying

Tiley described the move as a personal decision, linked specifically to bringing his family closer to relatives in the United States.

— Craig Tiley, via Sports Business Journal (industry trade publication)

Tiley will remain at Tennis Australia during the transition, assist with appointing his successor, and work with executive search firm Egon Zehnder on the handover.

— Tennis Australia, via Tennis Australia (national federation)

Why it matters: the personal framing and the institutional framing agree on one thing — the move was planned, not impulsive, and the handover is being treated as a professional transition rather than a resignation.

What the move means for two tennis nations

Australian tennis now has to find someone who can run the sport’s biggest January event without Tiley’s address book of contacts. The USTA, meanwhile, gets a CEO who already built one Grand Slam’s global brand; the question is whether the same scale-building playbook lifts American participation to 35 million by 2035. For the USTA, the choice is clear: give Tiley the runway to run the sport the way he ran Melbourne Park, or watch the 35-million-player target stay a number on a slide.

Frequently asked questions

Why is Craig Tiley leaving Tennis Australia?

Tiley called it a personal decision, tied to bringing his family closer to relatives in the United States. He accepted the USTA CEO role after a 21-year career at Tennis Australia.

When did Craig Tiley start at Tennis Australia?

He joined in 2005 as director of player development, became Australian Open tournament director in 2006, and was named CEO in 2013.

What is Craig Tiley’s new role?

He is the next chief executive of the USTA, the governing body for American tennis. He began his tenure in Orlando on July 20, 2026.

Will Craig Tiley continue to be involved with the Australian Open?

No. He resigned from Tennis Australia after accepting the USTA position. He planned to assist only during the transition while a successor was found.

How old is Craig Tiley?

He is 63.

Where will Craig Tiley live after moving to the US?

Tiley and his wife plan to sell their Melbourne home and relocate to the United States. His USTA duties are based in Orlando.

Is Craig Tiley still the Australian Open tournament director?

No. He left both the Tennis Australia CEO role and the Australian Open tournament-director role when he resigned in 2026.

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Cooper Anderson White

About the author

Cooper Anderson White

Coverage is updated through the day with transparent source checks.