04/26/24
June 29, 2009
Wimbledon Raises the Roof: After nearly 90 years of rain delays on Wimbledon's Center Court, which was built in 1922, at 5:19 p.m. Monday, Dinara Safina and Amelie Mauresmo played the first point under the new retractable roof. "This is the first time ever at Wimbledon somebody is waiting for rain," said Ian Ritchie, the club's chief executive.
That's good they have a roof. No chance of a Cliff Richard sing-a-long now. YAY!
I miss Wimbledon:(
posted by Drood at 11:10 PM on June 29, 2009
I didn't see the covered roof matches.
Do the loud barnyard coital kung fu grunts and shouts that are such an integral part of today's tennis have more projection and echo to them with the roof closed?
posted by beaverboard at 09:55 AM on June 30, 2009
Wimbledon looks tiny under that roof.
posted by rcade at 10:09 AM on June 30, 2009
Along the lines of the Murray match, he mentioned afterwards that the roof being closed raises the temperature quite a bit. The Guardian also did an excellent game-by-game report on the Murray-Wawrinka match.
posted by boredom_08 at 04:24 PM on June 30, 2009
Wimbledon looks tiny under that roof.
I'm sure that most people have never been in a championship tennis arena, which means that the sense of scale is warped a little by the standard TV camera position.
The capacity of Centre Court just got bumped up from 13,000 to 15,000, but it's still very intimate -- and the outer courts, where many of the early rounds and doubles matches are played, put you even closer to the action. The old Court No. 2, famed graveyard of champions, had a capacity of around 3,000 and its replacement has around 4,000.
posted by etagloh at 09:20 PM on July 01, 2009
Perhaps even more historic: Andy Murray's five-set match, which ended at 10.39pm under the lights, while the crowds on Henman Hill / Murray Mountain watched the big screen in darkness.