Australian Open Stringing Room Day 17

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Australian Open 2012 - 24 Jan Tue

Day 17 – The Break-In

 

I wake up early and head over to the stringing room at 7.30 with Todd. When we get there the room is locked. Joel is not there to open up yet and we don’t have a key. I have 3 racquets due at 9 and I want to get started on them. At 7.50am I decide to break in. One of our windows has a dodgy latch so I climb up onto the ledge and push it open. I climb through the window without injuring myself.

A woman who is walking past comes over and asks me if I am a stringer. When I reply in the affirmative she to me “Well it’s not a good look”. I resist the urge to say something smart. Surprisingly she doesn’t call security. Joel turns up to unlock the doors soon after I break in.

I get through my morning racquets quickly. Todd has been speaking to the stringer who was doing Tsonga’s racquets. He was spraying the ball in his match with Nishikori. Apparently he changed strings for this tournament. He was using a full poly setup prior to this and changed to gut mains to soften the stringbed up. It looks like he has sacrificed a bit of control by doing this.

Radek Stepanek drops in a Donnay racquet for us to string. He has been playing with a Bosworth racquet for years but might be looking to change.

I find out some interesting information from the Wilson guys about Del Potro. He is still using an old Wilson K Factor racquet. He only has a few of them left. When a racquet has had a lot of use and a lot of restrings the graphite starts to break down and take on a different character. I am told that they have tried to make new frames for him with the same specs as his current frames but because the graphite is not worn he does not like the feel. James Blake had similar problems with his racquets as well I am told.

We have a camera crews through the room looking for action a number of times. Each time they turn up there are no racquets being strung. Bad timing.

I do an on-court racquet for Sania Mirza.

There is a mix up with an on-court racquet for Rafa during his match with Berdych. We see him hand off a racquet for an on-court and we get the call from the tournament desk. 20 minutes later we still have not received the racquet. The racquet had been left on Rafa’s chair behind his bag. We finally receive the racquet and it is back in the runner’s hand in 12 minutes.

I head to Cookie after I finish to have some drinks with Jim. He is leaving the next day. Alcoholic Japanese bubble drinks again. They are far too easy to drink. I am in no hurry to get home. I have the next day off. It is my first day off for 2 and a half weeks. We work around 90 hours a week so I am really looking forward to it.

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 16

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Australian Open 2012 - 23 Jan Mon

Day 16

After a few racquets early in the morning we are quiet for most of the day. With most of the main draw players now out of the tournament we are really slowing down. The juniors and wheel chair players are the only ones dropping in racquets.

I am doing one racquet every 2 hours or so. There is no need for Red Bull. I did not buy it this morning. There are still a few cans in the fridge and I am sure that they will get me through the remainder of the tournament. I may need to stock up again if I start getting withdrawal headaches but that is unlikely.

I have my last racquet on the machine and am set for a 7.30 finish when we have a bunch of junior racquets dropped in. I am the only available stringer so the early night I had planned goes out the window. I leave at 9.45 and I have left 3 racquets for the morning. They were only dropped in at 8.30pm to be ready for 9am the next day. At Wimbledon they close the stringing room so any racquets not dropped in by a certain time are not accepted and the player must come back the next day to drop them off. We are a bit more flexible.

I get an early night.  I’m not feeling as tired as I was last week.

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 14

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Australian Open 2012 - 21 Jan

Day 14 – Juniors and Kukushkin

We are kept busy this morning. In addition to the morning batch of racquets from Kukushkin we have a lot of junior players dropping off racquets for the start of the junior tournament tomorrow. The junior racquets are fun to string. There are a lot of Babolats with open patterns and hybrid string. They are a breeze to string. I could string these all day.

Medina Garrigues cannot find the racquet we sent out to her during the match last night. The issue takes hours to resolve and involves multiple calls from player reps and the tournament desk. We are being told that we have lost the racquet. Eventually they contact the runner who collected the racquet from us to take onto court. She had left the racquet in the player’s bag while she was being treated for the injury. A quick count of the racquets in her bag confirms that this is the case.

There are people everywhere. It is so busy outside. Apparently the ground passes have sold out. There is massive queue for beers at the bar opposite us for much of the afternoon.  Many people are unable to get into the showcourts and they resort to watching the bigscreen instead.

I receive a round of applause from a guy who watches me string a racquet from start to finish. I didn’t know I was that good. Perhaps I should be selling tickets.

Kukushkin plays a marathon match against Monfils. He sends in two on-courts. One in the fourth set and one at the start of the fifth. I get both of them done in 15 minutes. The pattern we use produces a very hard weave on his particular racquets. I injure my hand while doing his second racquet. The ligament controlling the middle finger on my left hand is very sore. I am having trouble closing my hand and gripping string. I might have to call the trainer.

After the Kukushkin match I only have two racquets for Lisa Raymond to do. Then I am free to eat pizza and have a couple of drinks while watching the Hewitt match.

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 13

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Australian Open 2012 - 20 Jan

Day 13 – Cameras and On-courts

It starts out as a busy morning. I have racquets to string for Li Na and Kukushkin first thing but after that the room slows down. Everyone is quiet. We have quite a few camera crews and photographers coming through the room today. One camera crew decides that they are going to do a live cross from the stringing room during the Federer match. But they set the camera up looking across the room so it looks like there are only about 3 machines and at the time they come in nobody has any racquets to do. So they start setting the room up and asking us to look busy. They get three guys on machines pretending to string.  They put me in the background on a computer pretending to do work. So lame. We wait about 10 minutes until they do the cross and it lasts for 30 seconds. Worthwhile.

I have a photographer taking photos of my badly manicured hands while I string a racquet. I have some strapping on a couple of fingers which is half falling off. Great look. Later on in the day channel 7 attach a camera to the handle of a racquet and get me to string and stencil it. It will be on TV in the next couple of days I am told.

It gets busier heading in to the afternoon. I will be staying late tonight as Li Na is the last match on.

Dologopolov sends in two racquets during his match with Tomic. Jarrad and I do them at the same time. Jarrad flies through it and has the racquet heading back  to the court in 12 minutes. That is the fastest time of the tournament so far.

There are no more racquets from Dolgopolov that night. As the womens match between Li Na and Medina Garrigues begins I am just about ready for bed. I am the last stringer left and am just waiting for the  match to finish before I go back to the hotel. Then Garrigues send in an on-court racquet after the warmup. Time to wake up. Just as I am tensioning the last string she goes over on her ankle. I bag the racquet and send it out anyway. She retires soon after and I get an early night. In bed by 12.30.

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 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.