'I understand the expectation; I want to embrace it': Andrew Abdo's first one-on-one interview as Tennis Australia CEO
New Tennis Australia CEO Andrew Abdo has outlined his vision to help Australian tennis "grow and prosper", revealing he has received "pretty strong feedback" around what has worked and what areas require attention.
The 49-year-old was announced as Craig Tiley's successor in May, but a transition phase meant Abdo didn't commence his first day in office until August 3, having departed the NRL as CEO in mid July.
For the first three months of his tenure, the South African-born boss has listened to the views of many within the tennis fraternity, as he has made appearances at the US Open, Laver Cup, and Australia's recent Davis Cup qualifier against Poland in Brisbane.
Abdo joined The First Serve Live on SEN radio in his first official one-on-one interview since being appointed to Australian tennis' top job.
"The reason I'm excited is because we have a genuine influence to showcase our country and tennis in this country to a global audience through the AO," Abdo said during his appearance on The First Serve Live.
"We can also use, and if we're smart about it, use the reach and the relevance and the revenue from the AO to really invest back in the sport. That's incredibly exciting.
"Obviously, as an outsider, you get the license to ask all the silly questions and try and understand why we've gotten to where we've gone and why we do certain things, and that, I think, brings sort of a fresh perspective. But equally, you're then building off an amazing team and some amazing things that have been done. The growth of the AO over the last few years since COVID is phenomenal, and we have a sport that has a high level of participation, but clearly, a lot of debate around how we bring a focus on performance."
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Despite sharing that he played tennis growing up and that he loves the sport, Abdo doesn’t have a tennis background behind him from an administrative standpoint.
Because of that, his ears are wide open.
"I think a new CEO coming into an organisation has that license to ask questions and to understand what's really important, but also to listen," he said.
"I've really enjoyed the opportunity to engage with lots of different people inside the sport who love the sport, so that has meant that I've gotten some pretty strong views back around what's working and where we can get better. And what do we all have in common? We want to see Australian tennis absolutely grow and prosper. There are different ways in which we can go about doing that.
"One thing I want to harness is that passion and that knowledge in that perspective, and that energy, and put it into alignment... and I'm not using that as a buzzword, like a throwaway. This is real.
"Debate and constructive criticism are exactly what we need, right? But then we also need to remember that we're all in this to grow tennis. And so, we need to, at some point, we probably need to do a better job [at Tennis Australia] of being more transparent around our game plans and what we're doing. But having said that, it also kind of goes both ways."
The Australian Open has experienced seismic growth over the past few years during Tiley’s reign, with records being shattered thanks largely to the continuous precinct innovation.
Although the numbers were a great success, it left many unsatisfied regarding the overall fan experience, with complaints including long queues and limited access to outside courts.
Recently, the Australian Open announced that it would be limiting the number of ground passes for the 2027 edition, but wouldn’t specify the exact cap.
"Part of our job is to make sure that we keep lifting those caps so we get rid of those caps. I mean, it's not just about quantity," Abdo explained. "You mentioned 1.3 million people; I mean, one of our great things about the AO is how accessible it is, and how many ground passes we can provide for fans to genuinely enjoy not just unbelievable tennis, but the overall experience.
"But [for AO 2027], we're focusing on the quality of experience, not just how many people we get through. So, we want more space... Grand Slam Oval is going up by 45 per cent, literally, to another level. We want more shade, triple the amount of shade, and we want more seats.
"And we're only getting started. I am telling you, the next few years, we're going to be working really hard in partnership with the government and other stakeholders to keep reinvesting in the experience for the fans, and the experience for the players, because we want the AO to be the undisputed Grand Slam champion, and we want this iconic event to go to another level, and we will not rest until we get there. We probably will never get there."
When asked about occupying both roles involving the CEO and Australian Open tournament director caps, Abdo ensured that he will "continue to review" the process and guarantee that Tennis Australia has the "right people in the right roles going forward".
One of Abdo’s main goals as Tennis Australia boss is to help tennis become the No.1 participation sport in the country in the next five years.
However, he isn’t just interested in the overall number of participants, stating the importance of what the numbers actually represent.
"Part of my work over the last couple of weeks has been digging into the metrics, and the metrics that matter. And what you're gonna hear from me is not someone saying, 'Hey, look over here, this is a massive number', right?" Abdo said. "I'm more interested in, if you boil it all the way down, what really matters. How many people are actually engaging in the sport?
"So, acquisition is important. Programs like hot shots, introductory programs, getting people in, and then how we convert them to play regularly at school, and then at club, and socially and in competitions. How long we've got them playing tennis is more important than how many people were first exposed to the sport. Because, actually, we have a sport that gets quite a lot of interest from people, but it's technically really hard to play.
"It's got other challenges to it, as well. Individual versus the team aspect for the young people, and it's very expensive. Cost is a big problem we have to tackle, but we want more people playing, and we want them playing more often, and we want to make sure that we've got everything in place to enable that. And that means we have to probably think quite carefully about maybe creating some new data points and holding ourselves to account for those data points."
Nine Australians make up the top 100 of the men’s and women’s Tours, but the question is: where is Australia’s next Grand Slam champion coming from?
With this in mind, Tennis Australia has a plan to create a sustainable model in a bid to close the gap on the rest of the world, particularly the Europeans.
"In Australia, we love winners, and we love to win, and we are inherently competitive, and we have got an unbelievably amazing history over the last century of producing some unbelievable tennis champions," said Abdo. "And so I kind of understand the expectation; I love it. I want to embrace it, and we should be doing more, as Tennis Australia, to enable that, to create an environment where we are aligning the best of the best to get what they need at the top.
"But it's not easy. You mentioned earlier how competitive it is. And this is not me being defensive. It is unbelievably competitive. A country like America hasn't had a male Grand Slam champion for 23 years. There hasn't been a male Grand Slam champion outside of Europe [in the last 23 years], except for Del Potro. There was like one. So it is competitive, but there's more that we can do.
"Listening to all the different passionate views, I don't think there's one model that fits everything. Our states and territories are all slightly different, and Australia is different to the rest of the world, but there are a few things, if you allow me, [to] just kind of go into them, and they all start with C.
"It starts with competitors. We need more athletes. We need more athletes coming through, not just picking up a racquet and playing the sport, but we need to make it easier for those with talent, and, of course, the parents and so forth, to be able to develop the skills needed at an early age, and for that to then develop appropriately through that. I spoke earlier; it's expensive, right? So the first thing is we need more competitors. It's a war for talent out there. We want young kids signing up to play tennis, not netball, or AFL, or NRL, which means, as a sport, we've got to come together and work really hard on selling the virtues of belonging to the tennis community.
"The second thing is we need coaches, and we need quality coaches. And coaches are a big thing. Right? Because coaches are at the sort of epicentre of that player development journey. And I've been listening, and I've been hearing a lot of frustration from the private sector and from private coaches, who invest a lot of their time and energy into developing players. The transition to the next level is frustrating for them. If a player moves on to a TA tennis academy, or if they transition into a different model, it probably hasn't been as smooth as we would have liked it to be, but getting the right quality of coaches, consistency of coaches, that's another massive enabler.
"Then we need courts. I'm not talking generically; we need courts. We need clay courts, and we need indoor courts so that we can practice all year round in the benefits of clay courts.
"And then the last, well, the second last one, but the one I'm really passionate about is competitions. We need more competitions. We have 40 sort of professional competitions in Australia. It is triple that in America, and it's triple that in Europe. You want to know why the Italians are doing so well. Because they are in proximity to Spain, France, and others, they can play lots of competitions. So what do we need you to do, in my view, and what are you gonna see from us? Investment in more competitions, particularly if you think about junior world tennis, and you think about the Challenger events, and you think about opportunities for us to create, you know, six months of the year, where there's a real concentration of competition.
"The last one is cost. We've got to bring down the cost. The cost of coaching, but thinking about ways we can subsidise that, the cost of access to courts, we need more clay courts, we got to get investment. So, I think that there's a great opportunity to build off where we are and improve it significantly. And I've been getting some great views from former players and current players, but for me, it's sort of funnelling into this model where I think we can really focus our energies."
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