Newly designed centre court

INTERNATIONAL GLIMPSES

The All England Lawn Tennis Club has confirmed that the new Centre Court retractable roof at Wimbledon will be ready for the first time for this year's tournament in London, from June 22 to July 5.

But before the tournament proper, celebrity tennis stars of the recent past - like Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, Tim Henman and Kim Clijsters - will be playing under the new structure on Sunday, May 17, in what has been described as Centre Court celebration matches.

Final testing of the retractable roof and air-management system is now underway. The air-management system has a vital role in controlling and stabilising the internal environment within the bowl - essentially controlling humidity and preventing condensation on the inside of the roof or sweating of the grass, either of which would make the court slippery and unsuitable for play.  Ian Ritchie, Chief Executive of the All England Club, said, “The new Centre Court roof project has been a sophisticated engineering feat. We are now making final adjustments ahead of the Centre Court celebration event on May 17. That event is an important part of the testing procedure and will enable us to see how both the roof and the air-management system actually perform under live conditions with a capacity crowd.”

The new concertina-style folding roof -- designed by HOK Sport with structural engineering services by Capita Symonds - is constructed of durable Tenara fabric.  
Held up by ten 77-metre roof trusses, each weighing 70 tonnes, the fabric displays a 40 per cent translucency which allows light to penetrate and crucially reach the grass below. It takes a maximum of ID minutes to close the roof, which used approximately 5,200 sq. metres of fabric, all of which is recyclable.

While the Wimbledon matches will be scheduled as they were in previous years, the new roof and the 118 lights under it will mean that play will continue even in bad light. 

The construction of the retractable roof began in 2006 with the dismantling of the traditional roof overhang after that year's tournament. The grass surface was more open to the elements during the wet tournament of the following year, but the overhang was back in 2008, along with 1 ,200 extra seats.