Tennis fans will be hoping the rain that has already affected Wimbledon is the last the championships will see in 2023.
Qualifiers in Roehampton were briefly delayed five days before the start of the main draw after the weather intervened, but organisers say there is only a “small chance” of rain delays at this year’s tournament.
There were brief interruptions at Wimbledon 2022, none of which were a patch on the edition exactly a century earlier, when the final had to be played three days later than scheduled.
So, what happens if it rains at Wimbledon 2023? And what are the chances of major problems for organisers?
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Does Wimbledon have a roof on Centre Court?
A retractable roof was installed on Wimbledon’s iconic Centre Court in 2009 in an extremely complex work of architecture that involved 1,000 metric tons of steel.
There are 214 moving elements involved in the operation of the roof, which can also be adjusted to control the glare of the sun over fans and the Royal Box.
The roof, which is thought to have cost between £80 million and £100 million ($98m-$122m), started operating two years after an edition of Wimbledon ravaged by bad weather during the first week and three years before the…
