READ MORE:<\/strong> Coach's sobering words crash Barty after party<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Kyrgios gets heckler kicked out of Rod Laver Arena<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The Novak Djokovic debacle dominated the build-up as Tiley's efforts to allow the unvaccinated world No.1 to play were sensationally thwarted by the Australian government.<\/p>\n Increasingly under pressure, Tiley also had to navigate the Peng Shuai protests in Melbourne, eventually backflipping and allowing spectators to wear T-shirts questioning the whereabouts of the Chinese tennis star.<\/p>\n But on the court, the script could not have been written any better for Tiley.<\/p>\n Ash Barty snapped a 44-year drought for Australian women, Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis made doubles sexy and relevant again and then Nadal topped it off with a historic 21st Grand Slam.<\/p>\n "I think it is going to be hard to top it off," Tiley said.<\/p>\n "It is hard to think this happened and everything else that happened and everything else that happened in between. An amazing two weeks.<\/p>\n "Everyone will reflect and say they probably witnessed the best sporting event in the history of our game."<\/p>\n Tiley admitted it had been a "rough month" as he reflected on the challenges of running a Grand Slam in the midst of a pandemic.<\/p>\n He was asked by Karl Stefanovic what Nadal's embrace meant to him.<\/p>\n "I think he was giving everyone that worked at the Australian Open a hug at the moment and I just happened to be standing there," Tiley said.<\/p>\n "At the end of the day, I think tennis won. This weekend has been a historic weekend, not only for tennis, sport in Australia and particularly having Ash…<\/p>\n "Quite a few high emotional moments for me personally and also the entire team and it was capped off in the early hours of this morning.<\/p>\n "Rafa didn't leave the court – he was taking pictures on the court while we were breaking it down at 4am this morning. He, too, is someone that will never forget this moment. I know I personally won't. Our team won't. There is a lot of excited, pretty tired people this morning."<\/p>\n Tiley said he hadn't felt "that tired" and was still running on adrenaline as the tournament came to a close.<\/p>\n "I love this job, I love the people I work with," Tiley said.<\/p>\n "I'm pretty sad today because it's come to an end. Yeah, it may have been stressful but that goes with it."<\/p>\n Stefanovic then asked Tiley how he would top this year's remarkable event.<\/p>\n "We would never dreamed we would end up like we did today," Tiley said.<\/p>\n "We hoped. It was a long shot. Rafa came in hoping to play one match. Ash playing at home, always a tremendous amount of pressure. At the very beginning on the first day, I said if there was a situation where it would end up being a dream event at the end, it would be the one we just had. Maybe we are still waking up from that dream."<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n
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