Tennis: ASB Classic roof plans face delay

The ASB Classic's plans to install a roof have been delayed, and tournament organisers may be longing for its arrival by the end of the week.

Rain is set to lash the women's tournament this week, threatening a heavily disrupted event at ASB Tennis Arena.

The forecast is for intermittent showers today and tomorrow as the tournament gets underway, before consistent heavier rain hits Auckland later in the week.

Renovations were set to begin directly after the 2018 men's tournament later this month, but with the project being substantial, those in charge have decided to take a more methodical approach.

While the roof was not set to be installed until 2019 as part of a wider redevelopment upgrade, the setback in planning now means there will be at least two further tournaments the unpredictable Auckland weather can impact, with a roof now not an option until the 2020 tournament.

ASB Classic tournament director Karl Budge is being particularly cautious as to when developments will take place.

"We don't know what's happening in that space at the moment. We're 100 per cent committed to the project, we've got some fine tuning to do with it," he told Radio Sport.

The upgrades will see the Robinson and Yock stands demolished in a move which would increase capacity on centre court to more than 3500, and Budge says that the magnitude of the changes required more planning.

"With all the movement that's going on with the [WTA] Tour at the moment, the onus goes on us to understand what that looks like for the future and what we need to be building.

"For the sake of doing a little bit more homework before we rip down stands and commit to what's our biggest strategic project we've done for some time, we need to make sure we've dotted i's and crossed t's there."

As a result, there is currently no timeframe on the upgrades, but Budge insists it will still go ahead.

"We need to know exactly what we need to do and in what order it needs to be done. Once we have that, then we're in a position to commit to some projects.

"It will happen, but we've just got a bit of homework to do."