Exclusive: Craig Tiley USTA announcement to be made official next week

(Getty/Clive Brunskill)

Tennis Australia CEO and Australian Open Tournament Director Craig Tiley will officially be announced as the new United States Tennis Association (USTA) CEO next week.

Tiley, who has served as the Grand Slam's Tournament Director for two decades and the CEO of Australian tennis' governing body since 2013, played down speculation in January regarding a move to the USTA.

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However, The First Serve can confirm that the inevitable will become reality sometime next week.

"One thing we can tell you tonight is the confirmation of Craig [Tiley's] announcement as the new CEO of the USTA will take place next week," Brett Phillips said on Monday night's radio show, The First Serve Live.

"Back in January, we were right in the cut and thrust of the bubble of the Australian Open... there was a lot of speculation. Everyone felt that this was a done deal, but we haven't yet had official word, but we are going to have official word pretty shortly."

The First Serve's Linda Pearce joined Phillips on the show to discuss Tiley's looming exit.

"Obviously Sportico broke the news [in December] that it was going to happen, but no one at the Australian Open seemed to be convinced that it was 100 per cent done. Whereas the people I spoke to were sure it was," said Pearce.

"I think the job will now be split [between the] CEO and Tournament Director instead of one person having both, unless there was a very late, throw the kitchen sink at him move from Tennis Australia."

Among the candidates to replace Tiley are Tom Larner for CEO and Peter Johnston for Tournament Director, among others.

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