Everything you need to know about Wimbledon's new retractable roof.

Question: When will the new Centre Court roof be ready?

Answer: It will be unveiled to the public on Sunday May 17.
Q: Who will be the first to play beneath it? A: Tim Henman, Kim Clijsters, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf.

Q: How long does it take to close the roof?
A: Ten minutes.

Q: Fab. So no more rain delays?
A: It’s not quite that simple. Once it’s closed, fans will have to wait another 30 minutes before play can resume.

Q: Why?
A: To allow everyone to go to the loo, have a cup of tea and buy some strawberries.

Q: You are kidding?
A: Indeed. In fact it is in order to allow the internal environment to be controlled and stabilized. It says here.

Q: Meaning?
A: Air-conditioning, basically, to make sure that condensation does not build up either on the roof or the grass.

Q: Gosh. What’s the roof made of?
A: Moving steel trusses supporting 5,200 sq metres of translucent, waterproof fabric called Tenara.

Q: What does it weigh?
A: Three thousand tones.

Q: Total area covered?
A: The equivalent of 7,500 Wimbledon umbrellas.

Q: Won’t a towering lob crash into it?
A: Only if the lob rises more than 16 metres above the court surface. Which is unlikely.

Q: Who will benefit from the roof?
A: Players, from an improved schedule; fans, some of whom will be dry and all of whom will have something to watch; and Sue Barker, who will not have to waffle over pictures of people sheltering under umbrellas for hours.

Q: Fancy a Pimm’s?
A: Don’t mind if I do.

By the way the guy's that built the roof are 3Ks Engineering in Llanelli. They built the 28 panels.

And here are a few more points re the roof:

A key element of the design allows natural light to reach the grass—brought about by recontouring the fixed roof.

An airflow system removes condensation from within the bowl to provide good court surface conditions conducive to the playing of tennis when the roof is closed.

The roof is divided into two sections, with a total of nine bays of tensioned fabric—four bays in one section and five in the other. Each of the nine bays of tensioned fabric is clamped on either side to prismatic steel trusses.

There are 10 trusses spanning approximately 77 meters across the court. The ends of each truss are supported by a set of bogies that move along parallel tracks positioned at either side within the new 'fixed' roof.

In preparation for closing the roof, one section is parked in its folded state at the north end of the court while the other is parked at the south end.

The coordinated electromechanical movement moves the trusses apart and, at the same time, unfolds and stretches out the fabric between the trusses over the court until the two sections meet in an overlapping seam above the middle of the court.

The arch shape to the tops of the trusses helps the structure to withstand their own dead weight and loading from elements such as snow and wind when the roof is stretched and closed over the court.