June 29, 2009:
On June 29, 2009, the forecasted weather forced Wimbledon to host the Championships under the roof and artificial light for the first time in the over 130-year history of the event. It marked a dramatic shift in the way the historic tennis event would be played in the future.
The event was always played outdoors and under natural light. If rain or lightning impacted the event, the matches would be delayed or cancelled. In fact, the first finals of Wimbledon in 1877 were delayed by 3 whole days because of rain.
That was not the case on June 29, 2009, when number 3-seeded Andy Murray of Britain competed against number 19 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland to reach the quarterfinals at the All-England Club. In anticipation of storms that evening, the roof at Centre Court was closed, lights were turned on. and the match proceeded. The match lasted for nearly 4 hours and Murray, the Scotsman, emerged victorious.
Unlike the U.S. Open, there has never been lighted courts at Wimbledon up until that day, and matches often were stopped in progress because of darkness. Previously, no Centre Court point had been played later than 9:35 p.m. That evening’s match lasted until 10:39pm local time.
Since that first match under the lights, the roof at the famous Centre Court has been closed and the lights turned on over 280 times.
Featured image courtesy of Tennis.com.
