Wimbledon Opens Centre Court Roof
The new retractable roof over Wimbledon’s Centre Court has been unveiled for the first time with an exhibition match involving a host of former stars officially opening the redevelopment.
Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, Tim Henman and Kim Clijsters played mixed doubles and singles matches, watched by a crowd of 15,000 as rain fell outside.
The roof was unfolded as singers Faryl Smith and Katherine Jenkins sang ‘Amazing Grace’.
British number one Andy Murray also made a surprise appearance while five-time champion Roger Federer sent a video message from Madrid where he was taking on current Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal in the Masters final.
The All England Club began work on the multi-million pound roof in 2006 in order to prevent rain interrupting showpiece matches at future championships.
As part of the redevelopment, the capacity of Centre Court was expanded from 13,800.
Asked if there were plans to cover Number One Court in the near future, All England Club chief executive Ian Ritchie said: ‘We’ve had to rebuild Centre Court from the bottom up, it’s taken three years in construction terms and considerably longer in planning.
‘It would be tricky to look at a roof on Number One Court but we wouldn’t rule anything out in future. I’m sure it’ll be on the agenda but it’s not a priority at the moment.’
