On Saturday, the 26-year-old tennis player claimed that the coach of the world No 1 doubles pairing threatened to fight them in the locker room after the Aussie wildcards defeated Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic. However, playing down the incident, Mr Tiley said on Weekend Today that it “not unusual” when there is so much “passion”.
He told the publication: “There was a lot of passion and a lot of energy in the stadium and I think that carried over beyond the stadium.
“I have spoken to Nick and the team and this is not unusual.
“It’s not uncommon … when you have a situation like this and players are beaten and they are expected to win the match and there’s so much passion from the fans.”
According to the reports, the Aussie star was reportedly “accosted” in the locker room after he and Thanasi Kokkinakis stunned top seeds Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic in the second round — with Pavic in particular critical of the way the raucous Aussie crowd behaved during the match.
However, Mr Tiley’s response stunned Weekend Today presenter Charles Croucher who asked: “Don’t doubt the passion, but are you saying it’s not unusual that a coach would threaten a player after a match?”
Clarifying his stand, Mr Tiley said: “No. We’ll look closely at that, we’ll continue to look closely at that.
“As I said, I’ve spoken to Nick and Thanasi.
“What’s not unusual and what’s not uncommon is the passion, but certainly there are rules and there’s conditions around how you respond at the end of the match.”
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