OZ Open String Room - Day 6

Day 6 - Wed 12th Jan

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First day of qualies.

TIRED!!!!! Up at 6.30. Body is telling me it needs more sleep. Throat is sore and sinus playing up. My body's reaction to lack of sleep. It's trying to slow me down. On the machine at 7.15. One rkt due at 8am and 3 more due soon after. More rkts came in for me while I was doing those. Had a racquet due every 30min for the rest of the morning. Flat out. At one stage I was handed 2 racquets both due in 20min. Had to palm one off. Forgot to bring my red bull - Mistake #1. Struggle street. Tried out a new taping method for my fingers - Mistake #2. I need the pads of my fingers free of tape. tape here slows me right down and catches the string too. Slowed me down.

Seems that all of the rkts I got this morning were 18 x 20 patterns. With the 1 piece pattern we are using these are not easy to do in a hurry.

Hit the wall at 3pm. Lack of sleep and food hit me hard. Couldn't concentrate and see straight. Off to the cafe for a quick coffee. If I sat still for long enough I would have passed out.

Had an issue with a player re tension. I did 2 at 53.5lbs for him mon which he played with stright away. Then Tues he went up to 54 and did not use the rkt until wed afternoon. Said the 53.5lbs felt tighter than the 54. The counter staff did not ask the right questions and did not inform him of the tension drop which occurs overnight. So he asks for 54lbs for his wed match in an hour. He likes it. So then drops the rkt in again wed night for a thurs match. Asking for 54lbs. By the time Thurs rolls around it will be too loose. Frustrating. He has not been told. I bumped the tension up half a pound. When dealing with any players. Whether they are social or pros you need to ask questions and educate them. These guys are no different from shop customers.

Rained late in the day which slowed things down. Not too many to do that night.

Flood is all over the TV. What a mess. I picked a good time to leave Brisbane. All of the suburbs around my place are flooded. I live very close to the river and city. All smashed. Home at 10ish.

Shane Mikic is the proshop manager for the Tennis Gear stores and their online store www.tennisgear.com.au in Brisbane.  He has over 16 years racquet stringing experience and is currently part of the Wilson Global Stringing Team at the 2011 Australian Open.  The following blog shares his experiences during his time in the Wilson Stringing room.

OZ Open Stringing Room - Day 5

Day 5 - Tues 11th Jan

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Day before qualies.

Started at 8.30. Slow morning. Rain on and off. From 2pm it was flat out. Did not stop until just after 11. We did 291 rkts. Fingers are sore. Not as bad as last year. 4th finger on my right hand is suffering trauma. Very painful. Rest are fine. Have been taping the tops of my fingers. Good idea. It has saved me considerable grief. Have 4 rkts due tomorrow morning that must be done in the morning. Means I will be in early. There goes my sleep. In bed around midnight. Did not sleep well at all. Got maybe 3 or 4 hrs sleep. Text message around midnight asking if i was ok. Brisbane is flooding. I have not seen a TV or newspaper for a couple of days.

 

Shane Mikic is the proshop manager for the Tennis Gear stores and their online store www.tennisgear.com.au in Brisbane.  He has over 16 years racquet stringing experience and is currently part of the Wilson Global Stringing Team at the 2011 Australian Open.  The following blog shares his experiences during his time in the Wilson Stringing room.

OZ Open Stringing Room - Day 4

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Day 4 - Mon 10th Jan

Racquets started coming in the afternoon. Getting busier. Guys still trying to fix roof. TV's came. We have 4 plasmas. 2 for the match schedules and court allocations and 2 for TV.  Jarrad arrived to start. Ordered more tools. Only one of my Babolat clamps is working.  Team BBQ at Essendon. Late night. In bed around quarter to one. Need sleep.

Shane Mikic is the proshop manager for the Tennis Gear stores and their online store www.tennisgear.com.au in Brisbane.  He has over 16 years racquet stringing experience and is currently part of the Wilson Global Stringing Team at the 2011 Australian Open.  The following blog shares his experiences during his time in the Wilson Stringing room.

OZ Open Stringing Room - Day 3

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DAY 3 - Sun 9th JANUARY

Getting busier. Twice as many rkts today. tried out some new clamp bases for the bairdo. They are dual action rather than single action clamps. Not a fan. I switched back to the orig bases after a few rkts on the new ones. There are also some new clamps as well. much lighter with what seems like a better locking action. Will try some tomorrow I hope.

Finally got credit for the cafe . Free lunches are a reality again. Had the best cheesecake this afternoon. OMG. This food is so bad for me. But oh so good.

Joe arrived today. He was on the team last year and is stringing next to me. He is pretty talkative so should keep me entertained. He was looking at my bab tools and said he had some bab clamps at home the same as mine which he didn't use because they slip all the time. So he offered to send them to me . I have had these clamps for a year and never ever had any slippage at all. None. Zero.

So the very next string job - bang!! clamp slips. FAAAAAAAAARK!!!!!!!!!!! Cut out the strings. First and hopefully the only botched string job for the tment. It was M2 and was working off a spool so luckily we had string there. You  do not want a mistake when working with a single set of string that the player has supplied. Then you have to chase them up to ask for more string .

Clamps continued to slip after cleaning. Pulled them apart to scrub the face with a brush. It seems to have worked. Will see how they go tomorrow.

Len ans Vasilly were having an argument about how fast you could string the mains. I told them 4 minutes. Len says he has seen it done in 2 minutes. That is crazy fast.

We are still without an adequate roof. We have covered all of the machines with plastic just in case it rains tonight.

Had the pre tournament meeting tonight. Covered what was expected. Spoke about patterns, knots and tie offs. Also spoke about problem strings and frames and what patterns we would use for them.

Went out to Shanghai Dumpling House for dinner. Met friends there. Dickie, Vasilly, Tadashi, Joe and Ben all came along. I told them how good the dumplings were so they had to see for themselves. Had this amazing swedish cider. Smelled like ripe strawberries. Looks like I have a new favourite drink. Crazy Swedes.

Shane Mikic is the proshop manager for the Tennis Gear stores and their online store www.tennisgear.com.au in Brisbane.  He has over 16 years racquet stringing experience and is currently part of the Wilson Global Stringing Team at the 2011 Australian Open.  The following blog shares his experiences during his time in the Wilson Stringing room.

Oz Open Stringing Room - Day 2

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DAY 2 - Sat 8th JAN

Left the hotel at 8am.

Accreditation all good, at least for now. First day on deck stringing. Very quiet day. Only did 7 rkts. We are expecting a quiet day tomorrow as well. So i have made dinner plans with friends. Short days will be few and far between over the next couple of weeks.

Still setting the room up. Fridge arrived today. Still no internet.

Fridge is fully stocked with powerade. Water to come but there is now no room for it. Snacks arrived today too. Looks like 10kg of lollies along with the biggest container of animal crackers ever. I called dibbs on the gorillas.

Uniforms were given out today. T shirts plus a hoodie. We got a polar fleece last year. They must not be expecting it to get as cold as last year. I asked for small shirts this year. They only had mediums for me last year and i was swimming in them. The smalls looked ok out of the box. Correct length. Tried one on when i got back to the room. I would need  to have the shoulders of a 10 yro girl to fit this shirt correctly. Skin tight from the chest up. Fits like OJ's glove. Have to swap them for a larger size.

We have no roof at the moment. There is a floor above us and we have a false ceiling that is full of gaps. As a result sawdust is constantly filtering down into the room during the day. We have to cover our machines at night so that they don't get covered in dust.

The other downside of the false ceiling is that it doesn't do a great job keeping rain or water from the garden on the roof as we discovered today. Water came streaming through the ceiling when the guys up top decided to take to the rooftop plants with a hose. Water and electrics are not a good match. They came and patched us up with duct tape. We have a ceiling held together by duct tape. Classy.

My cafeteria pass is not working. $32 of food per day that i am not getting. Need to go to accreditation to get this rectified. But it's ok. I have tim tams and red bull. Athlete food.

Back to the room at around 6.30. Feeling energetic so went to the gym. Good session. Sushi for dinner. Eating tim tams watching the tennis, talking about rkts. Vassily's lost bag turned up today. Got lost somewhere between Chicago and Australia. Clothes, tools and all. When he showed up yesterday with just a backpack we all thought he was packing a bit light.

Meeting in the lobby at 8.30 tomorrow morning. Sunday sleep in. Might go to the gym beforehand.

Shane Mikic is the proshop manager for the Tennis Gear stores and their online store www.tennisgear.com.au in Brisbane.  He has over 16 years racquet stringing experience and is currently part of the Wilson Global Stringing Team at the 2011 Australian Open.  The following blog shares his experiences during his time in the Wilson Stringing room.

Oz Open Stringing Room - Day 1

DAY 1- 7th JANUARY

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Left for Melbourne today. No sign of my police check in the mail. Still. It has been 21 days. Accreditation might be a problem in Melbourne. We have been told no accreditation will be issued without a police check. Was only told about this in December. Have been told by the police that it takes up to 6 weeks. Have been in touch with the guys doing the Sydney tournament. If I don't get a guernsey in Melbourne then they want me in Sydney stringing. Have been checking flights and accom in Sydney. Everything is up in the air at the moment.

Checked into the hotel. Staying at the Medina on Flinders St. 2 bedroom apartment. Lots of space. Caught up with some of the guys for dinner. Todd, Dickie and Tadashi. All 3 did the tournament last year. It is the 4th time Dickie has done the Aus Open. Both Dickie and Tadashi are coaches. Dickie in Hong Kong and Tadashi in Japan. Todd has a restring / customization business in the States.

Went to Stalyctites for dinner. It is the greek restaurant Baghdatis made famous during his run to the final a few years ago. It was busy. We had to queue outside. The staff were rude. The food was average. I had what was essentially an overpriced kebab. Won't be going back.

Heading to the accreditation office tomorrow morning to try and get this mess sorted out. Have refrained from buying any groceries in case i am off to the airport tomorrow. Have a 4 pack of sugar free red bull ofc. Might not be much cause for it tomorrow  even if I do get accreditation. There were only about 30 rkts total today. Tomorrow should be a bit busier but not crazy. Apparently it gets busy from the Sunday, with qualifying starting on Wednesday. Last year on the day before qualifying the team did 295 rkts.

Watching some TV and facebooking before bed. Fri night here but no stringers are out. Big days are not easy to do hungover.

 

Shane Mikic is the proshop manager for the Tennis Gear stores and their online store www.tennisgear.com.au in Brisbane.  He has over 16 years racquet stringing experience and is currently part of the Wilson Global Stringing Team at the 2011 Australian Open.  The following blog shares his experiences during his time in the Wilson Stringing room.

Shane Mikic Interview

Shane Mikic is the proshop manager for the Tennis Gear stores and their online store www.tennisgear.com.au in Brisbane.  He has over 16 years racquet stringing experience and is currently part of the Wilson Global Stringing Team at the 2011 Australian Open.

 

Click here to see an interview with Shane at the Australian Open Stringing Room.