DEFENDING champions Rafael Nadal and Venus Williams cannot fail to be impressed when they walk on to Centre Court to defend their Wimbledon titles in eight weeks’ time.

For a start, they will receive a bumper pay rise of £100,000 – taking home £850,000 each, a 13.3 per cent increase on 2008 – if they can lift the singles crowns for a second year running.

And they will find a Wimbledon championship and a refurbished Centre Court arena, with its new state-ofthe- art roof, that is defying the deepest recession in a century.

Wimbledon will not put a figure on the cost of the new retractable roof, which was unveiled in a closed position for the first time, revealing a surprisingly light, plush and airy arena, even if the white metal trusses and the fabric concertina do not exactly conform to tradition.

Tennis fans, however, have already voted with their wallets.

Applications for Wimbledon’s public ballot are 20 per cent up on last year, while all 15,000 tickets sold out within five minutes for the May 17 test event when the roof will be closed and air-conditioning tested in a mini-tournament involving Tim Henman, Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf and Kim Clijsters, which will be screened on BBC2.

The roof is bound to be the subject of most attention, although Wimbledon have no plans to play night matches, as in New York and Melbourne, nor to shut the roof unless entirely necessary.

Ian Ritchie, chief executive of the All England Club, said: ‘‘We’d prefer to play outdoors.

If we can, we would prefer to keep the roof open as much as possible.”