What happens if the ball hits the roof at Wimbledon?

When the rain is falling in London, a not entirely novel weather situation, play at Wimbledon can carry on, at least on Center Court and Court No. 1. with both show courts now having roofs.

Center Court was refurbished in 2009 with the retractable roof being added. That was followed in 2019 by the addition of a roof to No.1 Court.

What happens if the ball hits the roof?

If a player’s shot goes up and hits the roof then they lose the point. It doesn’t matter where the ball comes down, just the ball hitting the roof means that player loses the point.

Why do you lose the point if the ball hits the roof? According to Rule 13 of the IRF Rules of Tennis if the ball “touches a permanent fixture before it hits the ground, the player who hit the ball loses the point.” While the roofs at Wimbledon are retractable, they are still considered permanent fixtures.

Exception to the rule about the ball hitting the roof

There is actually a situation where the ball can hit the roof and the player who hit the ball wins the point, but it’s never happened at Wimbledon and is unlikely to. Rule 13 also says that if the ball in play “touches a permanent fixture after it has hit the correct court, the player who hit the ball wins the point”.

Which means if a player smashed the ball so hard into their opponents court that it flew up and hit the roof, it would be their point as soon as it touched the roof. So there’s a challenge for the players.

Can the ball pass through the beams in the roof at Wimbledon?

The roofs on both Center Court and No. 1 Court have supporting beams under the actual roof cover, with there being plenty of gaps between the beams. The rule is clear that the ball has to touch the roof for the point to end, which means the ball can get up to the height of the roof and provided it passes through the beams without touching anything the point continues.

This happened in the second round match between Coco Gauff and Anca Todoni.

A Gauff mishit flew up and through the beams under the roof but didn’t touch anything. Todoni played the ball but was clearly disconcerted and hit her next shot into the net, before turning to the chair umpire who explained why the point had carried on.