JACK OF ALL TRADES

QWhat’s involved in being a tournament director? What do you enjoy about it?

AYou’re there for the players and have got to try to do what’s in their best interests. You’ve got to do what’s in the best interests of the spectators and then dealing with the ITF supervisors as well, coming up with a schedule and they’ll say: ‘These are the matches we need to play, which court do you want them on?’ You’re trying to make sure you get higher seeds on centre court, but next round they maybe play on an outside court so another player gets an opportunity to play on centre court. You don’t really want a player to rock up to a final having not played on centre court, although it’s impossible sometimes. It’s kind of like a jack-of-alltrades thing.

QA lot of your work is in regional areas. Do you notice the difference between tennis in the cities versus the regions?

ADefinitely. We’ve got three pro tours in Queensland – one in Brisbane, one in Toowoomba and one in Cairns. I just find the Toowoomba and Cairns communities and the surrounding areas really get behind those events and the organisers and volunteers they have there really try to make it what it is, because that’s their big pinnacle, an international event for tennis. The Brisbane one, not so much. At the start of the year they’ve got the Brisbane International, so for the people and the council there, it’s just another small event. In terms of general public support, it’s not as big as Cairns and Toowoomba.