TopServe Stringing Service @ AusOpen 08

Behind the scenes in Topserve's Stringing Room @ AusOpen 08

- blog by Ron Kohn, Head of Stringing Team

Tuesday 29 January, 2008:

Back home in Sydney now after a quick pack-up and exit from Melbourne Park. We managed to pack most of the machines and gear during the mens final on Sunday night. Finished packing Monday morning and everything is on a truck heading back to base in Sydney.

Final numbers, stats and trivia:

* Total number of racquets strung - 3075

* Most racquets strung by an individual stringer - 562 by Petr Krejci (world record)

* Highest tension - 37kg (Alexander Peya)

* Lowest tension - 15.5kg (Julian Knowle)

* Male player with highest number of restrings - Nikolay Davydenko, 68

* Female player with highest number of restrings - Venus Williams, 41

Saturday 19 January, 2008:

11:30pm - Well, it has been raining all day today so the only courts in use have been Rod Laver Arena and Vodafone Arena. No play and no practise on the outside courts means we had a very easy day. We have strung around 150 racquets today ... a "cruisy" day considering we are capable of stringing 400 racquets a day.

Our tally of 2,656 racquets for the tournament to date is currently well ahead of our forecast. This figure is just 100 racquets short of last year's total for the tournament and we expect to surpass that figure tomorrow (if it doesn't rain). As the tournament progresses and players are knocked out, our work load becomes lighter, however, we are still expecting to be busy for the next couple of days since the Juniors start tomorrow.

Although the stringing quantities have now become very manageable and no longer require the late night finishes, we still need to be here until the end of play in case a player requires an urgent "on-court" restring. There are certain players that constantly send racquets in off the court (like Rafael Nadal for example) and we always have a stringer on standby for those players whenever they are on court ... but we also have to be prepared for the unexpected "on-courts" from players who normally don't do so.

Monday 14 January, 2008:

5:00am - The countdown clock on the AusOpen website shows 6 hours until the first match begins (yes, that means it is 5am as I am writing this instalment of the blog).

The first "all-nighter" of the tournament: It is not uncommon for stringers to work non-stop through the night - we have no choice; if there are racquets that need to be done, we simply need to stay back and finish them. Most of the team started at 6am (Sunday) and some have managed to get away at around 3am (Monday) so they should be able to get in about 2 or 3 hours of sleep and be back here by 6 or 7am. Petr, our Czech "machine", has been stringing all night and is still going as I am writing this. I have just finished my batch of stringing and racquets to customise and I think I will head back to our hotel (just 10 minutes walk away) for a shower and come straight back.

It's going to be a hectic day with 64 matches to be played ... the first two days are always a late finish since there are so many matches to play and there is always that one court that has nothing but marathon matches all day, then add perhaps a rain break or two and a heat delay (as there was last year on the 2nd day and the last match finished at 3:45am!!!).

Our stringing tally is already at 1,544 racquets and we can expect anything between 350 and 400 today.

Sunday 13 January, 2008:

The 2008 Australian Open kicks off tomorrow. All players are now here in Melbourne, the last arrivals being those who played finals in Sydney and Hobart yesterday. Qualies were completed yesterday. Today was a practise day so players have been testing tensions and trying to zone in on the right combination for their first round matches either tomorrow or Tuesday.

Those players with early matches tomorrow have settled on their tensions for tomorrow and have dropped off between 3 and 6 racquets each. Those with later matches have dropped off more practise racquets for some last minute fine tuning to decide on their tensions and will drop off their match racquets throughout the day after their practise.

It is now 9:30pm and we have over 300 racquets to be strung for the morning (some of which you can see in the pic below). No time for dinner so we have ordered in pizza delivery (not easy when the site is in lock down mode so we have to go and meet the delivery guy at one of the secured gates). It is going to be a long night and it looks like at least 2 or 3 of us won't get away at all for any sleep. Petr "the human machine" Krejci, from Czech Republic, has already decided that he is doing an all-nighter, whereas the other guys are sorting the racquets which they have to get through tonight, hoping to get back to our hotel for at least 2 or 3 hours of sleep before coming back at 6:00am to complete their racquets which are due for later in the morning in time for the next rush of racquets which will come in between 9:00am and the start of play at 11:00am.  

Wednesday 9 January, 2008:

The Australian Open gets under way today with the first round of Mens Qualifying. The TopServe Stringing Team has been at work since last Friday and we have strung over 500 racquets already.

The photo below shows the team at work at 11:30pm last night. The racquets you can see in the background in the shelves are yet to be done for the morning. The last of us left here at 2:00am and were back here at work at 6:30am.