Wimbledon roof to be ready in time

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WIMBLEDON, England -- The new retractable roof over Wimbledon's Centre Court could keep players, and fans, at the All England Club later than usual. Tournament organizers unveiled the 5,200-square-metre folding roof Tuesday and confirmed that it will be ready for the first time for the June 22-July 5 tournament. While matches will be scheduled as they were in previous years, the new roof and the 118 lights under it mean that play will likely continue well beyond the point at which bad light usually forces a halt. Also, matches will be moved from other courts to the tournament's only covered venue if bad weather hits the grass-court tournament. Last year's men's final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer finished in near darkness at 9:15 p.m. All England Club chairman Tim Phillips said that any match started on Centre Court should now be played to completion on the same day, with the only caveat that organizers do not intend following the U.S. Open and Australian Open in staging night matches. "Not yet," said Phillips, who acknowledged that play may continue past 10 p.m. "We still intend that it will be a day tournament." Phillips said that games would only be moved to Centre Court if enough games had been affected by the weather to threaten an overrun into the second week of the tournament. He identified the women's singles, which has matches scheduled for Monday and Tuesday on the second week, as the competition most likely to find itself under the new roof. Otherwise, players could find themselves without a rest day on the whole of the second week, he added. "On the first Saturday, one would want to ensure all the ladies singles are completed," Phillips said. But the prospect of late matches means the ventilation system under the roof will have to be working perfectly to prevent condensation and the danger of slipping for the players racing across court. It will take between eight and 10 minutes for the roof's 10 trusses to slide across and cover Centre Court, and then as long as another 30 minutes for the airflow system to reduce moisture sufficiently for play to begin. The construction of the closing 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 2007, but the overhang was back in 2008, along with 1,200 extra seats. A new 4,000-capacity Court No. 2 will also open for the first time, taking the total ground capacity to 40,000. If the Centre Court roof, which will be tested out on May 17 at a special exhibition featuring former Wimbledon champions Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, has to be closed during a match, it will not be opened again until after that match finishes so that players have consistent conditions and to prevent delays. Phillips and All England Club chief executive Ian Ritchie said the decision on whether to close the roof was solely down to the referee and that an unidentified member of staff would be responsible for actually activating the mechanism. "The button pusher," they jokingly called them. Any brief shower, such as the 15-minute rain interruption in Nadal's final victory in 2008, will still demand the use of the old-fashioned covers being pulled across the grass, rather than the more complicated process of closing of the roof. "Of course, it's going to be 13 days of blazing sunshine this summer anyway," Ritchie said.