00:00 This is something that the Australian Open organisers are hoping to enhance the spectator
00:07 experience and get them to see a little bit more of the action during these tennis matches.
00:12 And that's because prior to this what we've seen is that spectators, if you leave the
00:17 arena because you want to go to the restroom or you might want to get a snack or a drink,
00:22 you actually have to wait until the change of ends before you're let back in. So that's
00:26 normally after at least two games and can be around ten minutes or even longer if we
00:31 see a couple of those really long rallies. And at the change of ends that's also the
00:35 time when the players get to have a little bit of a sit and regroup and also get themselves
00:39 a drink as well. But what we're seeing at the moment at the Australian Open this year
00:44 is that spectators are being allowed at the end of every game. And it might be a little
00:49 bit hard to pick up the audio from that on-court microphone but he was basically saying, "Really?
00:54 You've got to be kidding me. This is the wokest tournament ever." And we've also heard from
00:59 the top seed in the men's draw, of course, the defending champion Novak Djokovic. And
01:04 he was saying that this also caught him by surprise as well. And he made those comments
01:09 after his four-setter game against the Croat team Dino Prismic back on Sunday night. This
01:16 is what he had to say about having spectators come in at the end of each game. And he was
01:21 a little bit perhaps more diplomatic than our Ozzy.
01:25 Look, I mean, I understand the motive behind it is to enhance and improve the experience
01:35 of our fans. So we do play for fans. We want fans to have a great, thrilling experience.
01:44 But at the same time, all my career, all my life, I've been used to some kind of atmosphere
01:51 and then when that changes, it kind of messes up, it distracts you a bit.
01:57 Novak Djokovic there talking about the fact that for some people, if they're in the zone,
02:02 Melissa, you can really throw you off your game, I guess, if you're starting to see some
02:07 of those distractions and might lose that really important momentum. But this rule is
02:12 certainly going to be put to the test on day three here at Melbourne Park. We've already
02:17 seen huge crowds for the first two days, well over 80,000 each day. So there are definitely
02:24 going to be a lot of spectators that are wanting to get into those arenas to be able to see
02:28 things as quickly as possible. Now we have heard from the CEO of Tennis Australia, Craig
02:33 Tiley. He actually denies that there has actually been a rule change here. He says it's simply
02:39 a matter of getting those ushers to get people in as quickly as possible. And he mentioned
02:44 that that meant that if you get into the arena after the end of a game, then you really need
02:50 to just take whatever seat you can as quickly as possible so as to minimise that distraction.
02:55 So a little bit of a disconnect between the players and what the organisers are hoping
03:00 to do. But at the end of the day, there is plenty of action here on day three. First
03:05 up we've got the World Women number one, Iga Svantec, as well as six Australian players,
03:12 including Tanasi Kokanakis, we've got also Isla Tomljanovic and also Max Purcell as well
03:19 taking to the court.
03:20 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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