Centre Court is also a generic British English term for the main court at any tennis complex.

Wimbledon Centre Court

Centre Court during the 2009 Wimbledon Championships
Location	All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Wimbledon, London, SW19
Opened	1922
Renovated	2009
Owner	AELTC
Surface	Grass
Construction cost	£ 100 million (2009 Renovated)
Architect	Populous[1]
Capacity	15,000
Tenants
Wimbledon Championships

Left side at Centre Court during the 2008 Wimbledon Championships

Centre Court is the main court at the Wimbledon Championship, the 3rd annual Grand Slam event of the tennis calendar. It is situated in the Aorangi Park 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. This venue has a premier box that the Royal Family use, as well as other distinguished guests and is also known by its postcode SW19. Centre Court will also be used for the tennis competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

[edit] Background

The original roof for the centre court from 1922 was replaced in 1992.^[2] The second roof for the Centre Court was removed after the 2006 Championships in preparation for plans over a three year period to add a retractable roof to the venue. For the 2007 Championships, Centre Court had no roof at all for the first time since the stadium opened in 1922. The fixed portion of the new roof was completed by the 2008 Tournament and the retractable roof structure ready for the 2009 Championships. The new retractable roof over Centre Court was unveiled in April 2009^[3] and closed for the first time during a competitive match at about 4:40pm on Monday 29 June, 2009, during the 4th round Ladies Singles match between Amélie Mauresmo and Dinara Safina^[4][5]. The first full game to be played with the roof closed was the mens singles 4th round game between British player Andy Murray and Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka (although in fact the rain had ceased long before, but keeping the roof closed allowed the floodlighting to be used, ensuring the match could complete after dark, making the game the latest to be played at centre court).^[6]

Centre Court without a roof during the 2007 Wimbledon Championships

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 will be built to replace those currently in the upper tier. New wider seats will be installed and new additional stairs and lifts will be added.

An inscription above the entryway to Centre Court reads "If you can meet with triumph and disaster / And treat those two imposters just the same" - lines from Rudyard Kipling's poem If— .

[edit] See also

• List of tennis stadiums by capacity

Centre Court in 2005

[edit] References

Tennis portal

[edit] External links

• Centre Court Long-term plan features time-lapse video of the construction work
• Information about Wimbledon Centre Court and a Photo Gallery
• New Centre Court Retractable Roof Key facts and project specification

Coordinates: 51°26′1.48″N 0°12′50.63″W / 51.4337444°N 0.2140639°W / 51.4337444; -0.2140639