vmosrafa08
Semi-Pro
The All England Lawn Tennis Club unveiled its new retractable roof on Tuesday, ushering in a new era at The Championships that will allow for play to continue on Wimbledon’s famed Centre Court regardless of rain or poor lighting.
Both played factors in last year’s Championship match between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer that spanned more than seven hours including rain delays, and concluded at 9:15pm.
The translucent roof takes up to 10 minutes to fully close, and another 20 minutes is needed for the air-management system to stabilise the internal environment to ensure proper playing conditions. The new floodlights further assist in recreating an ‘outdoor’ atmosphere, while making it possible for matches to continue into the night.
An all-star line-up of Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, Kim Clijsters and Tim Henman will test the new roof and air-management system with live tennis in front of a capacity crowd of 15,000 at the Centre Court Celebration on May 17th.
Ian Ritchie, Chief Executive of the All England Club, said: “The new Centre Court roof project has been a sophisticated engineering feat. Much of the testing is complete and we are now making final adjustments ahead of the Centre Court Celebration event on 17 May. That event is an important part of the testing procedure and will enable us to see how both the roof and air-management system actually perform under live conditions with a capacity crowd.”
Also Tuesday, the All England Club announced an increase in its prize money levels for the 2009 Championships. The singles champion will earn £850,000, an increase of £100,000 from last year’s winner’s check. Total prize money for this year’s Championships, which begins June 22nd, has risen by 6.2 per cent to £12,550,000.
2009 Wimbledon Prize Money (in £)
Singles Doubles
Winner 850,000 230,000
Final 425,000 115,000
SF 212,500 57,500
QF 106,250 30,000
4th Rd. 53,250 --
3rd Rd. 29,250 16,000
2nd Rd. 17,750 9,000
1st Rd. 10,750 5,520
From Wimbledon's Website:
Retractable Roof on Centre Court
The roof will provide a first-class, consistent and safe (non-slippery) playing environment in both open and closed positions.
Of translucent construction to allow natural light to reach the grass, the roof will offer protection to the grass under all adverse weather conditions and, with the roof open, will improve growing conditions throughout the year, particularly at the southern end where the benefit of extra light will be achieved.
The roof has been designed to close/open in under 10 minutes and will be closed primarily to protect play from inclement (and, if necessary, extremely hot) weather during The Championships.
Play will be suspended while the roof closes/opens before being resumed once both the court surface and bowl have attained the optimum conditions for players and spectators.
This process will take between 10-30 minutes depending on the prevailing climatic conditions.
The retractable roof over Wimbledon’s Centre Court is a type of ‘folding fabric concertina’.
This allows the roof to be folded into a highly compressed area when not in use over the court. About 5,200 square metres of a very strong, flexible, translucent waterproof material will be used for the roof.
A key element of the design has been to allow natural light to reach the grass, while an airflow system will remove condensation from within the bowl to provide the optimum internal environment for spectators and players when the roof is closed.
The retractable roof is divided into two sections with a total of nine bays of structural fabric — four bays in one section and five in the other. Each of the nine bays is clamped on either side by prismatic steel trusses. There are 10 trusses spanning approximately 77 metres across the court. The ends of each truss are supported by a set of wheels that move along a track positioned on the new ‘fixed’ roof of the Centre Court.
In preparation for closing the roof, one section is parked in its folded state at the north end of the court while the other is parked at the south end. A combination of hydraulic jacks and arms form the mechanism for closing the roof.
The mechanism moves the trusses apart and, at the same time, unfolds and stretches out the fabric between the trusses over the court until the two sections meet in an overlapping seam above the middle of the court.
The arch shape to the tops of the trusses helps the structure to withstand loading from elements such as snow and wind when the roof is stretched and closed over the court. The shape also assists in providing a cleareance of 16 metres for high balls.
The roof has been designed to close in under 10 minutes. If the roof is being closed for rain, court covers will protect the grass in the usual way while closure is in progress.
After the roof has been closed, play can resume within a period of between 10-30 minutes, depending on climatic conditions.
