Wimbledon Centre Court
Wimbledon Centre Court Profile
| LOCATION: Wimbledon, London | COUNTRY: United Kingdom | YEAR OPENED: 1922 |
| CAPACITY: 15,000 | OWNER: England Lawn Tennis Club | GAME: Tennis |
Centre Court is the main court at the Wimbledon hampionship, the 3rd annual Grand Slam event of the tennis calendar. It is situated adjacent to Aorangi Terrace and is home to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Its only regular use is for the two weeks a year that the Championships take place, but it is arguably the most famous tennis venue in the world. Centre Court has a premier box that the Royal Family uses, as well as other distinguished guests, and is also known by its postcode SW19. Background
The name \"Centre Court\" derives from the location of the principal court at the All England Croquet Club\'s original site off Worple Road, Wimbledon – where the main court was located in the centre of all the other courts. The name was kept when the club relocated to its present site in 1922. It wasn\'t until a further four courts were added in 1980 that Centre Court\'s location in the grounds matched its name.
The court suffered from bomb damage during World War II when five 500lb bombs hit the Centre Court during an air attack in October 1940. 1,200 seats in the stadium were destroyed and although play resumed on time after the war in 1946, the court wasn\'t fully repaired until 1949.
The original roof for the centre court from 1922 has been modified several times. In 1979, it was raised by one metre to allow the capacity to be increased by 1,088. Further building work came in 1992 with a replacement of the roof and a modified structure which allowed 3,601 seats to have a clearer view of the court which had previously been restricted by the number of roof supports.
Capacity has been increased to 15,000 by adding six rows of seats to the upper tier on the east, north, and west sides. New media facilities, scoreboards including video, and commentary boxes were built to replace those currently in the upper tier. New wider seats were installed and new additional stairs and lifts were added.
Retractable roof
The retractable roof that has been operational since 2009 takes up to 10 minutes to close, during which time play will be suspended. A further delay will occur whilst the air management system recreates an outdoor atmosphere. The tournament rules for the Wimbledon championships dictate that once the roof has been closed it must remain closed until the end of the match. This leaves the possibility that matches may be completed indoors even though the sun is shining outside.
The roof was closed for the first time during a competitive Championships match at about 4:40 pm on Monday 29 June 2009, during the fourth round Ladies Singles match between Amélie Mauresmo and Dinara Safina.
The first full match to be played with the roof closed was a men\'s singles fourth round match between British player Andy Murray and Switzerland\'s Stanislas Wawrinka. Play on centre court had never gone past 9.17 pm, but with the roof closed and the floodlights on, the match was able to be completed after dark – at 10.38 pm. Merton Council\'s environmental chief David Simpson said after Murray\'s late night win that late night tennis would not cause any problems. However, when the record late finish was surpassed in 2010 during a match between Novak Djokovic and Olivier Rochus which ran until 10.58 pm it was reported that Merton council had imposed a curfew of 11 pm BST on Centre Court.
The roof was mobilised by SCX Special Projects Ltd, who also undertake all the planned preventative maintenance to ensure it continues to operate efficiently.
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