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Wimbledon unveils £70m roof on No. 1 Court

In a star-studded ceremony, the All England Lawn Tennis Club unveiled the fully retractable roof on top of Wimbledon’s No. 1 Court on Sunday.

The roof, which took three years to complete and cost £70m (€80m), will enable more matches to be played for longer at the tennis grand slam regardless of the weather.

It will take less than 10 minutes for the roof to close and another 20-30 minutes for the air conditioning to fully acclimatise the venue for indoor play.

Wimbledon now joins the US Open and Australian Open in having roofs on multiple stadiums. The French Open is expected to have a roof on Court Philippe Chatrier, its first, by 2021.

Among those taking part in Sunday’s test event – which was broadcast live on the BBC in the UK – were Goran Ivanisevic, Jamie Murray, Venus Williams, Kim Clijsters, John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova.

As part of other changes to No. 1 Court, all seats in the venue have been replaced and the capacity has increased to 12,345.

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