Hi, this is Billie Jean King. This is Mary and Bartoli. I'm Matt Vylander. This is Mary Carillo.

I'm Stan Ravinka. I'm Lainey Nguet. I'm Andy Murray. This is Janik Noah and you're listening to the tennis podcast.

Well folks, I think today's podcast should probably carry a hyperbole warning because for anybody that thought our podcast a couple of days ago was

verging on the hyperbulous, well today's tennis or tonight's tennis or yesterday's tennis whenever you might be listening to this wherever in the world you are was a bit like two days ago.

But with sort of added elements of dystopian Cinderella and all sorts of other movie type comparisons race against the clock films speed and 24.

I know that's sort of film. It's a TV program, but I'm sure there'll be all sorts of slightly naff TV film and literature references. Hopefully Matt can provide some highbrow on ones to raise the bar a little bit.

But my goodness me we're under the gun again to try and do justice to quite historic day of sport actually I think.

Yeah, would you say it would be a and for weird reasons I mean when was it we found out that I think we pretty much woke up to the news didn't we that the infections that have been detected and in Melbourne we're going to mean that the five lock day lockdown was was coming in at 11.59 p.m. local time, which meant that there would be one more day of action with a crime.

And because of who was involved in that day of action with a crowd it couldn't have been a starker contrast from the high points of of the raucousness and the low points of the nothingness and yeah it makes you feel very strange at the end of a day like that it's almost like having had a fantastic night out.

And then it all going a bit.

Ending up an A&E.

And you have an terrible hangover.

Yeah, I felt like I felt like the Australian open sort of made my heart swell and broke it all at once.

Tonight.

Yeah, I mean I saw just before going to sleep that there were what well not rumours actually started off with rumours and then there was the official announcement that the city would be going into a five day lockdown but at that stage the details really Australian open was simply the Australian open will be affected.

There was a sort of slightly mysterious period of time before it was clarified that there wouldn't be any crowds and that 11.59 would be the cut off and then it emerged later on in the day that crowds would be asked to leave at 11.30 on the dot in order to allow them time that's a quick old commute I would say 29 minutes.

I suppose it is right in the city center Melbourne Park.

Yeah, in order to allow them time to get home in time for that lockdown and that's when the ticking clock started.

Yeah, what was it we called the podcast two days ago the day tennis came home. Well, this was the day everyone went home because we've normalized a lot of things.

Haven't we over the last few months, extraordinary things being normal but today I couldn't process as anything other than the most bizarre scenes.

I think I've ever seen in sport really.

I mean people people having to leave mid contest and just creating this sort of apocalypse feel after we literally just had as you said David Nick curious and the most wonderful.

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