Wimbledon - Wimbledon set for late-night drama

Eurosport - Wed, 22 Apr 16:22:00 2009

Epic matches on Wimbledon's famous Centre Court could turn into after-dark dramas after All-England club officials said the arena's new retractable roof means there is now no cut-off time to finish each day's play.

TENNIS 2009 Wimbledon centre court retractable roof - 0

After two years of construction work, the roof will be available for use at the Championships for the first time when the tournament gets under way on June 22.

Winning at Wimbledon has always been as much a test of coping with delays caused by the notoriously bad English weather as skill on the grass courts.

But the roof, which is fitted with floodlights, will allow matches on the show court to be finished in one go and Wimbledon bosses have been given the go-ahead by local officials to play as long as reasonably necessary.

"We could finish after 10 o'clock in the evening," Wimbledon chairman Tim Phillips said. "The scheduling will still be the same as an outdoor day time event, but there is no absolute cut-off time.

"The players will have to come off court when the roof closes. Ideally that would be at the end of a set rather than 8-8 in the final set.

"It's difficult to forecast all the circumstances that could arise, so we won't talk about a last time a match could finish.

"We will try to make a judgement call. Sometimes you won't get it right but we'll try to most of the time.

"I think we've all got a feeling of quiet confidence. If it gets to 22-22 in the final set it could go a bit pear-shaped!"

The concertina-style roof, made of a translucent water-proof fabric, will take between eight and 10 minutes to close and a further 20-30 minutes for the air management system to create the correct conditions to ensure the grass doesn't become dangerously slippery in the more humid 'indoor' climate.

It will be used in public for the first time at a test event on May 17. Former Wimbledon champions Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf will join retired British number one Tim Henman and Belgium's Kim Clijsters, also retired, for mixed doubles and men's singles and women's singles matches played entirely under the roof.

While the roof takes Wimbledon into the 21st century, there are still complaints from players about the courts, with many saying the pace of the game at Wimbledon has slowed too much in recent years.

Phillips insists that instead of moaning, players should follow the example of reigning Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal, who adapted his natural clay style to the slicker lawns of south-west London and claimed a thrilling win over Roger Federer in last year's final.

"We hear what the players are saying. But it is a great test of tennis as we saw in the men's final last year," Phillips said. "I think it reflects enormous credit on Rafa for the way he has adapted his game to grass. One or two others in the past have tended to cop out.

"They would get a large number of points on clay and disregard grass. Rafa has shown if you can play on clay you can play on any other surface."

Phillips also ruled out the possibility of changing the surface from grass courts to hard-courts, in line with so many tournaments, including the grand slams in Australia and the United States.

"The game is lawn tennis. We have got the inclination, the time and the resources to prepare the grass properly. I think it is extremely important we remember our heritage and support grass," he said.

"Players are complaining about wear and tear on hard courts and there are already a load of tournaments on clay."

AFP

Comment 20 - 39 of 39

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  1. Its nice to see Britons at last they coup with reality,­ that their unlimited conservative minds have no common­ ground. To bring the roof on Wimbledon was supposed to­ be done long time ago, even they are the one supposed­ to invent it before all due to the weather agility in­ UK. Am looking forward to see if awk-eye gonna be­ introduced soon too. All in all we gonna be happy so­ as tv, commercials and the fans wont be robed due to­ weather conditions. Cant wait to watch it!!

    From eddie, on Tue 19 May 4:18PM

  2. it seems really low to me, compare it to melbourne­ park, i think they should have increased capicity even­ more and gone higher.

    From ajpbolton, on Thu 23 Apr 10:22AM
  3. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    VENUS TO WIN WIMBLEDON!!!!!! LATE NIGHT TENNIS.....SO­ EXCITED....IF VENUS WILLIAMS PLAYS AT NIGHT THAT WOULD­ BE AMAZING...SUCH AN ATMOSPHERE!!!!!!!!!

    From andmawhinney, on Wed 22 Apr 4:06PM

  4. Welcome to the 21st. century. It is about time !!

    From Tim, on Wed 22 Apr 2:30PM

  5. I thought the roof was mostly to avoid stopping matches­ for rain delays, more than it was intended for night­ matches... weird that the article focuses more on night­ matches

    From Bali, Maha, on Wed 22 Apr 1:04PM

  6. exhefra - if the very detailed breakdown you have given­ is correct (thanks for putting the effort to post!!!),­ then definitely Djokovic and Federer are in big­ trouble... except Djoko played great against Nadal last­ week so you never know!

    and Nadal of course has lots­ of points to defend but I think he still has it in him­ to go the distance this season... At least I hope so!!!

    From Bali, Maha, on Wed 22 Apr 1:03PM

  7. Can't wait to see wimbledon centre court with new­ roof on.Yippy night matches great so looking forward to­ seeing the doubles matches in may to try the new roof­ out.

    From AJ, on Wed 22 Apr 12:41PM

  8. looks like Murray will move to third possibly second­ place before Wimbledon based on the logic that Federer­ and Djoko have no chance of defending that many points­ and on the other hand Murray got so little to defend

    From kirovrtanoski, on Wed 22 Apr 10:50AM

  9. RANKING AFTER CLAY SEASON?

    If You take a CLOSER LOOK­­ at ATP Ranking, You will notice that Monte Carlo 2008­­ POINTS will be subtract at 27.04.2009!

    As we know­ they­ were:
    Nadal 1000
    Federer 700
    Djokovic 450
    Murray­­ 150

    THE REAL ATP RANKING should be:
    Nadal 14470 ( -­­ 1000 MC 2008 + 80 DC 2009)
    Federer 10060 ( - 700 MC­­ 2008 + 0 no 19th Tournament)
    Djokovic 9160 ( - 450 MC­­ 2008 + 90 Marseille 2009)
    Murray 9050 (- 150 von MC­­ 2008 + 250 Doha 2009)

    P.S. Estoril 2008 is allready­­ subtracted!!!

    POINTS TO DEFEND ON CLAY:
    NADAL = 3610­­ (RG 2000, Hamburg (Madrid ) 1000, Rome 10, Barcelona­­ 600)
    FEDERER = 2350 ( RG 1400, Hamburg 700, Rome­­ 250)
    DJOKOVIC = 2350 ( RG 900, Hamburg 450, Rome­­ 1000)
    MURRAY = 370 !!! (RG 150, Hamburg 150, Rome­­ 70)

    SO WHAT DO YOU THINK?

    From Igor, on Wed 22 Apr 10:40AM

  10. murray will not see the second week of wimbledon.

    From Dave H, on Wed 22 Apr 10:33AM

  11. then people like will join the tennis club also

    From Mba E, on Wed 22 Apr 9:44AM

  12. clispy man u know roof has its own positives and­ negatives. I mean under the roof firstly the ball will­ travel much faster than what it usually does.The bounce­ will be very even and precise. So it will be very­ affective for players like federer and murray. just see­ the tournement in Halle before wimbledon, it is played­ under the roof and you will notice a big difference.­ So playing when the roof is on , say if its a federer ­ v nadal match then its considerable advantage for Fed­ and if the roof is taken off during the match then­ conditions become even again so to only adds up to­ interesting viewing.

    From Ashit g, on Wed 22 Apr 8:16AM

  13. Novak is developing slowly but surely he sould be­­ patient and more consistent, the Crown is there for­ the­ taking.Looking forward to an intresting­ season,the­ rivalry beetwen Novak and Andy will become­ legendary at Wimbledon year

    From kirovrtanoski, on Wed 22 Apr 4:08AM
  14. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    federer or djoko have the best chance of winning on­ grass

    From kirovrtanoski, on Wed 22 Apr 3:59AM
  15. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    I am quite shocked the bulb went off finally...if we­ had the roof 2 years ago, Nadal would be going for his­ 3rd straight title of this most boring of the slams.­ Leave the grass for royals to graze on.

    From CoolVybz, on Wed 22 Apr 3:47AM

  16. ...women's matches on Centre Court now.

    From Andrew Broad, on Tue 21 Apr 10:36PM

  17. Anyway, I hope the roof will put an end to the sexist­ Centre Court scheduling of previous years: two­ best-of-five Men's Singles matches, with a­ best-of-three Women's Singles match between them­ "like a mouldy piece of cheese in an otherwise­ tasty sandwich" [Dan Walker, BBC]. There's­ really no excuse not to schedule two...

    From Andrew Broad, on Tue 21 Apr 10:36PM

  18. If two big servers are playing a final set, it might­ still be in progress when the following day's play­ is due to start!

    From Andrew Broad, on Tue 21 Apr 10:35PM

  19. great that they finally put the roof..now it will be so­ much better..i mean it's so boring when the rain­ interuptes the match and you have to wait until it­ stops to play...boring!!

    From Ina01Masha, on Tue 21 Apr 10:18PM

  20. habesis com tr
    this is for extras

    From gökhan t, on Tue 21 Apr 10:10PM
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