Lleyton Hewitt to launch Court No.1 at Wimbledon
Australia's Davis Cup captain and former Wimbledon Champion Lleyton Hewitt will help unveil the new-look No.1 Court at Wimbledon later this month.
Hewitt, who won the 2002 championships, will join several former winners including John McEnroe, Goran Ivanisevic and Martina Navratilova in a test event for the court's new roof on May 19.
All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) chairman Phillip Brook recently announced that the prize money for the third grand slam of the year will rise to £70 million - a jump of 11.8 per cent from the previous year.
Other topics covered in the AELTC’s “spring press conference” was the introduction of final-set tiebreaks for the first time when the scores reach 12-all.
This decision comes following last year's monumental semi-final between Kevin Anderson and John Isner - which was won 26-24 by the South African - and the infamous match between the American and Nicolas Mahut in 2010.
“We feel 12-all is a good middle point,” said AELTC CEO Richard Lewis. “It can produce an exciting finish, but can’t run very late.”
Six-all then tiebreak feels too early in fifth set, this gives a bit more time to see if one player can win "Twelve-all effectively means one more set of tennis so we feel that is a fair amount of time."
Brook also confirmed the shot clock system in place at the Australian and US Opens to generate faster service play will be introduced in 2020.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2UQZa97
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