Down Under, Day 5: Everything, All at Once

I took this photo back on Thursday afternoon Melbourne time - the view from just inside the "gantry" set for ESPN outside Rod Laver Arena (the Australian Open's Centre Court). Things were quiet then, only a few staffers moving here and there in Melbourne Park.

Things got a little louder and noisier today.

Like any event where there's a lot of to cram in over a short span of time, the first couple of days' action in a grand slam tennis tournament is an exercise in controlled chaos. Throwing a further wrench into the plans is the fact that it RAINED today. In the summer time, in Australia. First everybody stood around for 10 minutes saying "What the hell is this?", and then panic hit the streets. Well, kind of - they had to go to all the trouble of closing the roofs over Rod Laver & Hisense Arena. Terrell Owens, who just decided to fly over here on a whim, found the whole affair funny and was quite surprised that tennis players would be allowed to play under a closed roof in order for matches to continue in adverse weather. T.O. also found time to:

1) Tweet about a live interview with Tim Rinaldi
2) Decide he wouldn't be any good at Australian Rules football (the kind with no pads)
3) Back track on not giving Aussie football a go and figure that, along with hitting some tennis balls, he'll try anything once
4) Think of more reasons to complain about every quarterback who ever threw him the ball (with the obvious exception of Buffalo QBs, who have to learn how to throw first)

In any event, the rain threw off the plan to take in "everything at once" for tennis fans because action dropped from 21 courts down to 2, but the rain wasn't all-encompassing like it was at the US Open last September, when full days of competition got washed away; only a few matches are likely to be delayed until Wednesday and then we'll be all caught up.

Unless, of course, the rains come back.