First Wimbledon Match Under Roof

It s a good thing we ve got a second roof wimbledon.

First wimbledon match under roof.

The three time champion at. Jamie murray teamed up with goran ivanisevic to take on pat cash and lleyton hewitt in an opening doubles match under the roof. Beneath the new roof and arc lights of no 1 court as well as under the fresh and intense gaze of the tennis world she was playing with a poise assurance and nerveless ease in her second round match that slovakia s magdalena rybarikova a former semi finalist. The briton has yet to drop a set and will next face queen s club champion grigor.

As well as a retractable roof the seating capacity of the court was increased by approximately 1 000 to seat 12 345 people. If this was the 15 year old just winging it on the night she followed up her win over venus williams by defeating an opponent twice her age just imagine how well she will play when she really gets the hang of this wimbledon grass. This was then exceeded on saturday 30 june 2012 when andy murray beat marcos baghdatis in their 3rd round match which was completed at 11 02pm in spite of the 11 00pm ruling. The 11pm barrier is next.

On sunday 8 july 2012 andy murray and roger federer contested the first wimbledon final to be played partially under a roof. The roof gets closed its first men s match finishes at 10 37pm and the whole thing is so splendid you just know it has to be only for starters. The first match played on the new court was between tim henman and daniel nestor. Murray won 6 4 6 3 7 6 8 6 in a match that ended under the centre court roof after a rain delay in the second set.

The first midnight finish. For the first time in the 142 years since the holding of the first championships at wimbledon those sitting on the second biggest show court in south west london were protected from the elements by a pristine gleaming new roof. Nic bothma epa london novak djokovic played the first match of this year s wimbledon tournament under a closed roof on centre court and he won it in straight sets.