Poor crowd behaviour, Craig Tiley tournament director comments, Novak Djokovic booing

Australian Open boss Craig Tiley has claimed the 2025 crowd was one of the best behaved in the tournament's history, despite criticism from some players throughout the event.

A record-breaking 1.2 million fans poured through the gates at Melbourne Park throughout the 15-day event, and Tiley said fewer were evicted than ever before.

But there were several high-profile incidents of poor crowd behavior - most notably following Novak Djokovic's semi final retirement, and against American Danielle Collins in the first week of the tournament.

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Speaking on Nine's Today on Monday morning, Tiley said he believed Australian tennis fans were the best in the world.

"The majority of the spectators have behaved extremely well ... I think they are the best in the world," he said.

A record-breaking 1.2 million fans passed through the gates at the Australian Open. Getty

"I came over a couple of months ago from Davis Cup in Spain, and that's a whole different scenario when it comes to crowd behaviour.

"We think that the crowd really behaved very well. We had fewer evictions than we've ever had before.

"There's always going to be a very small minority, a tiny minority that are going to be disruptive, and we made it very clear if you are, we're going to remove from the precinct. And we did that with some people.

"But it was a smaller number that we'd done before. So on the whole, we were pleased with how the crowd behaved."

Among the last of the fans removed from the precinct was a woman during the presentation following the men's singles final on Sunday evening.

Runner-up Alexander Zverev was about to make his speech when she chanted "Australia believes Olga and Brenda", in reference to the domestic violence allegations against the German.

Earlier in the tournament, Collins slammed the "super drunk" fans that packed in to watch her second-round match against Aussie Destanee Aiava. She went back-and-forth with spectators throughout the match, but her post-match celebrations only stoked the fire.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia gesturing to the crowd. Getty

She blew them a kiss, gestured for them to kiss her bottom, and then sarcastically thanked them for their contributions to the "big fat pay cheque" she would be receiving.

Aiava said "it was like a rugby league crowd" was watching the match. In her third-round match against eventual champion Madison Keys, Collins was constantly booed.

Brit Jack Draper said he copped the "worst abuse he'd experienced, even though (he) thrived on it".

Players have also been critical of the bar constructed alongside Court 6, which took inspiration from the 'party holes' that feature at LIV Golf events.

On Friday, the Rod Laver Arena crowd came under fire for booing Djokovic after he retired at the end of the first set of his semi final against Zverev.

Zverev and tennis great John McEnroe were among the most vocal critics of the crowd's behavior.

Ever the pantomime villain, Djokovic had engaged the crowd himself during his third-round clash with Tomas Machac.

Tiley conceded "no one likes booing", but claimed fans were frustrated at the situation rather than Djokovic personally - a sentiment he claimed he shares with the Serb.

"That was such an unbelievable set – it went for an hour and a half nearly," Tiley said.

"The crowds were more disappointed that they weren't going to see what was probably going to become one of the best matches at Melbourne Park.

"I think that was definitely that case afterwards. I spoke to Novak and the other players afterwards, they didn't feel that they were booing specifically at them. It was more the disappointment in that particular instance.

"In this case, the crowd are really having a great time and they want to see a lot of tennis ... but it would be ideal not to have (booing)."

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