Australian Open Stringing Room Day 12

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Australian Open 2012 - 19 Jan

Day 12 – Serena and Cricket

I have trouble getting out of bed this morning. I have been using the Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock App on my iPhone. It is great because even with little sleep it will wake at the correct stage in your sleep cycle so that you do not feel tired. I forgot to set it the night before. I feel asleep for most of the morning. My eyes are blurry and I am having trouble focussing.

After I get through the morning rush we are offered some tickets to see Serena’s match on Rod laver. The tickets are in Strycova’s player box. Joe and Len have tickets as well. The difference in standard between the 2 players is astonishing. Strycova struggles to keep the ball in play. There are few rallies. She makes a lot of second and third ball errors. She seems close to tears after just a few games. Her coach is not happy and smashes a water bottle into the ground when the match is finally over.

After the match we head over to the noodle place to get some lunch. The food is good apparently. They are so busy. They are taking orders faster than they can make food. The organisation is poor. There is no number system. All of the people who have ordered food cram wait at the end of the counter and as food is brought out the closest person just grabs it.

The dim sims are good. The pad thai is very salty. It is like gargling with sea water. No more noodles for me.

Within minutes of getting back to the room I get slammed. My players are sending in urgent racquets at regular intervals. I have another on-court for Kukushkin which is done in 16 minutes again. I also go head to head with Tadashi over some Nishikori on-court racquets. He beats me by one string.

Tennis Australia has organised some tickets to the cricket for some of us tonight. I head over to the MCG with Joe, Jim and Matthieu. It takes us 20 minutes to track down the tickets. None of the staff at the MCG seem to have a clue about their basic procedures. We are there in time to see the final 15 overs of the match. The Jim Beam tastes good.

We head back to the room to collect our bags after the cricket and head home. Vasilly is staying to cover the night matches. He is asleep on the floor when we walk in.

It seems more like a holiday than work today. That should change tomorrow. We expect to be busier as the junior players start to check in. We also lose one of our stringers tomorrow. Today was Dickie’s last day so one of us will have to cover his players.

Shane Mikic is the pro-shop manager for the Tennis Gear stores and their online store www.tennisgear.com.au in Brisbane.  He has over 17 years racquet stringing experience and is currently part of the Wilson Global Stringing Team at the 2012 US Open.  The following blog shares his experiences during his time in the Wilson Stringing room.

Australian Open Stringing Room Day 11

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Australian Open 2012 - 18 Jan

Day 11

I have an early start today. There are 7 racquets for Sam Querrey waiting for me as well as racquets for Li Na. I need to get through the Querrey racquets as quickly as I can to free up my machine.

My fingers are still a bit sore so I really need an easy day to give them a chance to recover.

After I clear the morning racquets it is a slow day for me. My fingers are starting to feel better.

The café sells yoghurt with berries and muesli. I decide to try it out. It looks really good but tastes sour with the texture of soggy bread. Not a great choice.

The fridge in the stringing room is broken again. This is the 3^rd day in a row. The freezer works great the fridge compartment is really just a box. Works like cardboard but chews more electricity. We have to make do with room temperature Tim Tams. Some of the guys are upset.

I leave the room just after 9pm. I try to get an early night. The long days are starting to take a toll on my body.

Shane Mikic is the pro-shop manager for the Tennis Gear stores and their online store www.tennisgear.com.au in Brisbane.  He has over 17 years racquet stringing experience and is currently part of the Wilson Global Stringing Team at the 2012 US Open.  The following blog shares his experiences during his time in the Wilson Stringing room.

Australian Open Stringing Room Day 10

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Australian Open 2012 - 16 Jan

Day 10

It starts out as a busy day for me. I have racquets for Li Na and Kukushkin. Kukushkin is still playing without a stencil. He has a Wilson contract but is using Head racquets. After I get through those the racquets do not stop for me. It is not a really busy day overall. We only do 250 racquets in total for the day but I do not leave the machine. I finally get a break at 10 to 4.

I quickly grab some food and then there are racquets waiting for me when I get back to the room. I do an on-court racquet for Kukushkin. It is one piece Big Banger Original in an 18 x 20 pattern. This is not the easiest racquet to string quickly. I have it back to the runner in 16 minutes. It’s not a world record but it is well within time.

I have had to tape my fingers today. It is the first time I have had to do so. My left index finger and the middle finger on my right hand have been doing too much work. They are tender. I am avoiding using them as much as possible. I am using tools to handle the strings as much as I can to save my fingers.

By the end of today we have done 2128 racquets in total.

I leave the room just before 10pm. I am exhausted. A few of the guys are having drinks. I don’t go. I need to sit down and put my feet up. I really need a massage now.

Shane Mikic is the pro-shop manager for the Tennis Gear stores and their online store www.tennisgear.com.au in Brisbane.  He has over 17 years racquet stringing experience and is currently part of the Wilson Global Stringing Team at the 2012 US Open.  The following blog shares his experiences during his time in the Wilson Stringing room.

Australian Open Stringing Room - Day 9

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Australian Open 2012 - 16 Jan

Day 9 – Main Draw

A few of us start early today. I am stringing from a quarter past seven. Li Na’s racquets prove to be slower than expected. She uses Pro Hurricane for the mains and Babolat Excel for the crosses. Both strings have a very sticky coating which makes straightening them a slow process. The crosses have 10% machine pre-stretch on them which means I am always working ahead of the tension head. The tension head pulls, releases and then pulls again for each cross string. Waiting for the tension head to pull twice slows me down. I am wanting to move quickly but it just won’t happen.

Racquets continue to come in during the morning. Everyone in the room is working flat out. On-court racquets come in thick and fast. We are having multiple on-court racquets come in from the same player at one time. This has the added novelty of 2 stringers racing against each other to get their racquet done. Jeff remains undefeated for the day.

We are busier than we were yesterday. By lunch time we have done over 200 racquets. My racquets start to slow down in the afternoon. I head over to do a radio interview with 3AW. It goes pretty well. They want to know if I would want to travel year round and string on tour. I think they are surprised when I tell them no. A few tournaments a year is fun but to spend most of the year stringing would mean giving up all sport and exercise in general. That’s not a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

I get through 3 Red Bulls today and am distressed when I realize my supply has been exhausted. We get through 354 racquets by the end of the day. I leave the room after 11pm. I need sleep and a massage.

Shane Mikic is the pro-shop manager for the Tennis Gear stores and their online store www.tennisgear.com.au in Brisbane.  He has over 17 years racquet stringing experience and is currently part of the Wilson Global Stringing Team at the 2012 US Open.  The following blog shares his experiences during his time in the Wilson Stringing room.

Australian Open Stringing Room Day 8

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Australian Open 2012 - 15 Jan

Day 8 – Ridiculously Large Pizza Day

We are expecting a massive day today. The day before main draw starts is always big. We are quiet until about 11am then the racquets start coming in. While most qualifiers are happy bringing in one or two frames the majority of main draw players bring three, four or five racquets at a time.

Lunch today is pizza. Not just any pizza but Costco pizza. Each pizza is 6 slices. One half of a Dominos pizza has fewer calories than a single slice of Costco pizza. This is the most cheese I have seen on a single slice of pizza ever. No wonder Americans are overweight. I struggle to finish one slice. The base of the pizza is so thick that I feel as though I have eaten half a loaf of bread. No donuts for lunch today. This is a good thing.

After the pizza the racquets continue to pour in the door. I am making good time and staying on top of things until Sam Querrey’s racquets turn up. He wants 7 racquets done. My box is now very full. I get through the Querrey racquets in just under 2 hours.

Geometric polyester strings are popular at the moment. There are octagonal, hexagonal, pentagonal, square and triagonal cross sections. Some of them have very sharp edges designed to grip the ball. As a general rule I don’t like working with strings that have edges sharp enough  to remove your finger prints when you handle them. My next two racquets need just such a string. It is getting late now and I am careful not to slice my fingers. I still have racquets to do after I am done with these.

Everyone works flat out throughout the afternoon and into the night. The last stringers are done before 10pm. I only need 2 Red Bulls for the day. A few of us have racquets to be done first thing in the morning and will be heading in early. I have 4 racquets for Li Na and one for Kukushkin. I get to bed around 11.30.

Shane Mikic is the pro-shop manager for the Tennis Gear stores and their online store www.tennisgear.com.au in Brisbane.  He has over 17 years racquet stringing experience and is currently part of the Wilson Global Stringing Team at the 2012 US Open.  The following blog shares his experiences during his time in the Wilson Stringing room.

Australian Open Stringing Room Day 7

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Australian Open 2012 - 14 Jan

Day 7 – Kids Day

Today is kids day at Melbourne Park. All kids get in for free. It is the final day of qualifying matches and there are exhibition matches on other courts. There are activities everywhere to keep the kids interested. We have a stringing display again this year and I am the man for the job. I am on a small stage outside the stringing room stringing racquets beneath a couple of umbrellas. I did the same thing last year but I had a microphone so I could speak to the crowd. There is no microphone this year so I fail to draw the huge crowds that I had last year. Fortunately I have no on-court racquets while I am on stage. It is difficult to string outside with the stringbed partly in shade. I end up doing 4 hours on stage. Last year it was only 2 hours. The longer performance surely warrants extra pay. I make a mental note to speak with Ron about this.

Jim does a live interview today for Australian Open TV. It screens on the big screen here during a break in one of the exhibition matches. He is not happy being on camera although it doesn’t show.

Even though we are 2 days out from the start of the first Slam of the year the room is still pretty quiet. We have some racquets coming in during the afternoon but no one is pushed.

I don’t need any Red Bull today.

Shane Mikic is the pro-shop manager for the Tennis Gear stores and their online store www.tennisgear.com.au in Brisbane.  He has over 17 years racquet stringing experience and is currently part of the Wilson Global Stringing Team at the 2012 US Open.  The following blog shares his experiences during his time in the Wilson Stringing room.

Australian Open Stringing Room Day 6

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Australian Open 2012 - 13 Jan

Day 6 – Twisties

I do a ham and cheese croissant again for breakfast. Melbourne is going to make me fat if I’m not careful. I have a couple of racquets to string first thing in the morning and then I am free until matches start.

 I do my first on-court racquet of the tournament today. It is a Wilson Juice with a 16 x 19 pattern strung in one piece with Alu Power. I string the racquet in just over 10 minutes and it is back in the runner’s hands 15 minutes after he steps in the room. That’s a good time to start with.

Lunch today is Twisties and wraps. The Twisties don’t go down so well. Not sure why these guys have a problem with Twisties. I lose some sleep thinking about this.

It is not too busy today. I only need one Red Bull.

Shane Mikic is the pro-shop manager for the Tennis Gear stores and their online store www.tennisgear.com.au in Brisbane.  He has over 17 years racquet stringing experience and is currently part of the Wilson Global Stringing Team at the 2012 US Open.  The following blog shares his experiences during his time in the Wilson Stringing room.