Wimbledon, a suburb of south west London, is the home of world tennis (the modern rules of the game were drawn up in Britain in the late 1800s) and the location of the world's oldest, and most prestigious, tennis tournament. It is also the only one of the four major Grand Slam tennis tournments to be played on grass (the way that lawn tennis should be played).
Over the years it has been famous for four miserable entities - rain, hail, strong wind and Andy Murray.
But now, thanks to its new state-of-the-art roof over Centre Court, only Andy Murray still remains of those four.
The roof takes 10 minutes to close, so now matches won't be delayed due to the rain as has happened many times in the passed (and therefore punters won't be "treated" by Cliff Richard singing during the rain delays, either).
And, with new floodlights, matches could last longer into the evening, but there'll be no repeat of the recent Australian Open when a match took until 4.30am.
When the roof is closed, 290 million tennis balls could fill Centre Court, and the weight of each of the roof's ten trusses is 100 tonnes.
PICTURE SPECIAL: Wimbledon raises roof and prize money as new Centre Court is unveiled at SW19
By MIKE DICKSON
21st April 2009
Daily Mail
Wimbledon showed off its new Centre Court roof with the pledge that the tournament will try to serve up prime time drama this summer rather than late night thrillers.
However, there was an admission from the All England Club that this will be a year of discovery with the new covering and that matches could go on until an unprecedentedly late hour if rain intervenes. Bodies such as local council Merton have not specified a curfew by which time the stadium must be emptied.
Should the players feel inconvenienced they will have the compensation of the credit crunch-busting 6.2 per cent rise in prize money that was also announced..
Enlarge
Raising the roof: Chief groundsman Eddie Seaward admires the new roof on Centre Court
With the natural daylight cut off of around 9.10pm no longer applicable when the roof is closed and the 120 spotlights turned on, there is the potential for open-ended five set matches to run well into the night.
All England Chief Executive Ian Ritchie insisted, though, that everything would be done to avoid becoming like the U.S Open or the ridiculously nocturnal Australian Open.
'Everyone accepts that there might be a bit of a learning curve this year,' he said.
'We don't want to see night-time sessions here and the emphasis is very much on it being an outdoor, day-time event.
CENTRE COURT'S NEW ROOF
Referee Andrew Jarrett will have the final decision but will consult with Richie and others.
All matches that begin under cover will will stay that way, while if the roof closes during a match it will remain shut until it finishes.
With the sun shining yesterday the arena, which will take between eight and ten minutes to shut off from the elements, was surprisingly bright beneath its translucent roof, boosted by 120 lights.
The tournament can proudly claim that the massive redevelopment over the last ten years at SW19 has not cost a penny of public money, and this year it also features a new 3,000 seat Court Two sunk 3.5 metres into the ground.
Continually thriving commercial deals and TV right sales have seen a prize money increase to mitigate the weakness of sterling, with the total now reaching £12,550,000. The greater rewards are tilted towards those who make the later rounds with the men's and women's winners receiving £850,000 each.
Spectacular: The revamped arena stands next to Court 1 (left)
Standing guard: A Wimbledon official admires the renovated Centre Court at SW19
All covered: The new roof will save spectators and players from the elements at this year's Championships in June
Meanwhile, little-known British tennis player Nicola Slater found herself with a highly unusual opponent at a Futures tournament in Buenos Aires - the first transexual player in the women's game for nearly 30 years.
The 24-year-old from Ayr attracted a media contingent numbering more than a dozen, as she took on 38-year-old Andrea Paredes, from Chile, in the first round of the US10,000 event in the Argentine capital.
Paredes is thought to have changed sex in 2003 and follows in the footsteps of the more famous Renee Richards, who reached world number 22 after playing from 1977 to 1981.
She seems destined, however, not to reach those heights, as she lost 6-1 6-0 to the Scottish rookie in barely half an hour at the Parque Roca, where Great Britain played Argentina in the Davis Cup last year.
For Paredes, this was a debut on the lowest rung of the professional ladder, having passed a gender test in 2007 that allowed her to compete on the tour.
'It was obviously a big thing for her, and all the media wanted to speak to her afterwards,' said Slater, who is herself trying to make it in the pro ranks after an outstanding college tennis career at the University of Florida.
'We had a chat afterwards and she seemed pleasant. She told me that she was playing in Argentina because it is more liberal here, and that she is still not allowed play in women's tournaments in Chile.
'She has quite a strong physique, but I don't think she realised the power levels in the professional game. She has apparently been training hard since 2004, but I don't think she was quite ready for my serve.'
dailymail.co.uk
Over the years it has been famous for four miserable entities - rain, hail, strong wind and Andy Murray.
But now, thanks to its new state-of-the-art roof over Centre Court, only Andy Murray still remains of those four.
The roof takes 10 minutes to close, so now matches won't be delayed due to the rain as has happened many times in the passed (and therefore punters won't be "treated" by Cliff Richard singing during the rain delays, either).
And, with new floodlights, matches could last longer into the evening, but there'll be no repeat of the recent Australian Open when a match took until 4.30am.
When the roof is closed, 290 million tennis balls could fill Centre Court, and the weight of each of the roof's ten trusses is 100 tonnes.
PICTURE SPECIAL: Wimbledon raises roof and prize money as new Centre Court is unveiled at SW19
By MIKE DICKSON
21st April 2009
Daily Mail
Wimbledon showed off its new Centre Court roof with the pledge that the tournament will try to serve up prime time drama this summer rather than late night thrillers.
However, there was an admission from the All England Club that this will be a year of discovery with the new covering and that matches could go on until an unprecedentedly late hour if rain intervenes. Bodies such as local council Merton have not specified a curfew by which time the stadium must be emptied.
Should the players feel inconvenienced they will have the compensation of the credit crunch-busting 6.2 per cent rise in prize money that was also announced..
Enlarge
Raising the roof: Chief groundsman Eddie Seaward admires the new roof on Centre Court
With the natural daylight cut off of around 9.10pm no longer applicable when the roof is closed and the 120 spotlights turned on, there is the potential for open-ended five set matches to run well into the night.
All England Chief Executive Ian Ritchie insisted, though, that everything would be done to avoid becoming like the U.S Open or the ridiculously nocturnal Australian Open.
'Everyone accepts that there might be a bit of a learning curve this year,' he said.
'We don't want to see night-time sessions here and the emphasis is very much on it being an outdoor, day-time event.
CENTRE COURT'S NEW ROOF
- The roof takes 10 minutes to close
- It is 16 metres above the court surface
- The maximum time before play can start or continue after the roof is closed and the internal environment stabilised is 30 minutes
- 43 miles per hour - the wind speed up to which the roof can be deployed/retracted
- The span of the moving roof trusses is 77 metres
- And the weight of each of the 10 trusses is 100 tonnes
- 1,200 extra seats have been installed
- The combined weight of the roof is 3,000 tonnes
- It would take 7,500 Wimbledon umbrellas to cover the same area as the roof
- 290 million tennis balls could fit in Centre Court with the roof closed
Referee Andrew Jarrett will have the final decision but will consult with Richie and others.
All matches that begin under cover will will stay that way, while if the roof closes during a match it will remain shut until it finishes.
With the sun shining yesterday the arena, which will take between eight and ten minutes to shut off from the elements, was surprisingly bright beneath its translucent roof, boosted by 120 lights.
The tournament can proudly claim that the massive redevelopment over the last ten years at SW19 has not cost a penny of public money, and this year it also features a new 3,000 seat Court Two sunk 3.5 metres into the ground.
Continually thriving commercial deals and TV right sales have seen a prize money increase to mitigate the weakness of sterling, with the total now reaching £12,550,000. The greater rewards are tilted towards those who make the later rounds with the men's and women's winners receiving £850,000 each.
Spectacular: The revamped arena stands next to Court 1 (left)
Standing guard: A Wimbledon official admires the renovated Centre Court at SW19
All covered: The new roof will save spectators and players from the elements at this year's Championships in June
Meanwhile, little-known British tennis player Nicola Slater found herself with a highly unusual opponent at a Futures tournament in Buenos Aires - the first transexual player in the women's game for nearly 30 years.
The 24-year-old from Ayr attracted a media contingent numbering more than a dozen, as she took on 38-year-old Andrea Paredes, from Chile, in the first round of the US10,000 event in the Argentine capital.
Paredes is thought to have changed sex in 2003 and follows in the footsteps of the more famous Renee Richards, who reached world number 22 after playing from 1977 to 1981.
She seems destined, however, not to reach those heights, as she lost 6-1 6-0 to the Scottish rookie in barely half an hour at the Parque Roca, where Great Britain played Argentina in the Davis Cup last year.
For Paredes, this was a debut on the lowest rung of the professional ladder, having passed a gender test in 2007 that allowed her to compete on the tour.
'It was obviously a big thing for her, and all the media wanted to speak to her afterwards,' said Slater, who is herself trying to make it in the pro ranks after an outstanding college tennis career at the University of Florida.
'We had a chat afterwards and she seemed pleasant. She told me that she was playing in Argentina because it is more liberal here, and that she is still not allowed play in women's tournaments in Chile.
'She has quite a strong physique, but I don't think she realised the power levels in the professional game. She has apparently been training hard since 2004, but I don't think she was quite ready for my serve.'
dailymail.co.uk