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With great respect to John Lennon, somebody did tell us there would be days like these.
Days when a large group of Australian men would make the second round at the Australian Open, the best of them capable of rubbing Buddhist love symbol tattoos with the best players in the world.
Days when smoke came from remote controls as Australians flipped between the exploits of not one but two genuinely exciting prospects, Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Days when Australia looked set to reclaim its place as a First World tennis nation, even if it wasn't like the "old days''. Because only the most deluded romantic believed Australians could again win Grand Slam titles like they were locker room drinking contests in a game now so cosmopolitan David Warner would need a full-time interpreter.
Thanasi Kokkinakis takes it all in after beating Ernests Gulbis. Picture: Wayne Ludbey Source: News Corp Australia
The man who told us was Craig Tiley, a diminutive, fast-talking South African who had made his name on the American college circuit and took over Tennis Australia's development program in 2005.
Tiley spoke in business shorthand, worked a Blackberry instead of racquet-stringer and didn't seem to care that the coach he just replaced was Kenny Rosewall's old hitting partner or Neil Fraser's nephew.
As Tiley says: "If you've got an accent, you've got a slideshow and you're from out of town, you're an expert.'' And people don't like experts.
So the natives grew restless. I mean, all Harry Hopman needed to rule the tennis world was an ant-bed court and a basket of beaten up practice balls. Who does this bloke think he is?
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It got worse. Tiley went all King Herod. Young players were wrenched from the bosoms of their childhood coaches and put into centralised coaching programs. Or so they claimed.
So over the next decade the old guard plotted rebellion as the media and public grew impatient. There were board room challenges, an unflattering Four Corners "expose'' and corridor whispers that Tiley, who became Australian Open tournament organiser then TA chief executive, was a controlling megalomaniac.
Tiley blocked his ears. Asked the hardest thing he had done over the past decade, he says: "Not being swayed by the commentary. Not changing course after every setback.''
Yet from the seemingly intransigent Tiley there were significant concessions. Importantly he rebuilt some bridges, embraced former critics – Lleyton Hewitt among them – and anointed a successor.
Nick Kyrgios takes time out to sign a few Autographs at training. Source: Getty Images
TA's new tennis director Pat Rafter on Tuesday paid homage to Tiley by saying he would be "building on a good foundation''. Yet, significantly, the Queenslander will be his own man.
Players in Rafter's system will be forced to attend school because only a precious few will make money from the game. Fourteen year-old prospects will spend more time in Bondi than Berlin and, Rafter hopes, still be in love with the sport when they attempt to break into the big time.
Rafter is blessed with unusual common sense, but also because he has inherited a system already producing elite talent. Unlike the Mother Hubbards of the past he won't be constantly dogged by questions about why Australia's cupboard is bare.
Sam Groth will take on Thanasi Kokkinakis in the second round. Source: Getty Images
So finally, as Australian tennis's godfather John Newcombe puts it, "everyone is rowing in the same direction''.
"You got a feeling it (the resurgence of Australian men's tennis) was happening for the past 18 months,'' says Newcombe. "But you've got to get the wins on the board to back it up.''
So at the stroke of midnight on Monday when Kyrgios and Kokkanakis had completed five-set first round victories and Australian tennis seemed to turn from a pumpkin into a pumpkin pie, how did Tiley feel? Proud? Fulfilled? Vindicated?
Lleyton Hewitt is the veteran amongst an exciting batch of young stars. Picture: Wayne Ludbey Source: News Corp Australia
"Standing in the corridor of Melbourne Park holding one of his three children aged three years-old and under, the answer should be "tired''. Instead it is hungry.
It's nice to have more players than we have had before,'' says Tiley. "I want to have more. I want the players we've got to progress through the ranks. I never want to reach the point of satisfaction.''
Australian tennis refusing to dine out on signs of success and instead looking wisely and harmoniously to the future?
Great days indeed.
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