There’s no tennis on Abdo’s CV. Can he make the hard calls?

May 25, 2026 — 7:39pm

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It is the appointment that took the Australian tennis community by surprise.

Andrew Abdo, who announced his resignation as the NRL’s chief executive on Monday afternoon, is Craig Tiley’s successor – not Tennis Australia’s chief tennis officer Tom Larner, or anyone else with a significant background in the sport.

Like Tiley, Abdo is South African-born.

But unlike the man he is replacing (Tiley was a successful coach for the University of Illinois before joining Tennis Australia as director of player development), tennis was not on Abdo’s CV until now. That’s an interesting development, given there is also effectively no tennis-specific expertise on TA’s board.

However, tennis people who spoke to this masthead were largely positive about Abdo’s appointment, and willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. That said, a common perspective was that he would require more tennis-related support than Tiley did.

Tiley’s predecessor Paul........

© The Sydney Morning Herald