Racket Stringing regularly provides a tournament stringing service.
English National Badminton Championships, at the National Cycling Centre, Manchester, 2007 - 2011
English National Badminton Championships, at the Bolton Arena, between the 3rd & 5th February 2012
AEGON International Tennis, Eastbourne 2008 - 2010
AEGON Pro-Series, Frinton on Sea 2008 - 2010
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In 2012 Racket Stringing is pleased to be providing a stringing service to the Carlton sponsored Badminton Inter County Championships and will present at;-
The National Badminton Centre, Milton Keynes, 14th & 15th January
The National Badminton Centre, 31st March & 1st April
Hatfield Leisure Centre, 14th & 15th April
The National Badminton Centre, 28th & 29th April
So come along say hello and watch some quality badminton
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Tournament Diary
2011
National Badminton Championships, Manchester 2011
February 3rd
Packing the car this morning and then driving to Manchester to setup ready for the start of the event tomorrow. So much easier to get in and setup the day before, I can have a leisurely breakfast and arrive at the Velodrome in plenty of time for the first rackets.
February 4th
First day of the event, players started arriving early and been kept busy all day. Just strung one of the new Carlton Razor V10 rackets that has no grommets for the 8 central cross strings! The strings wrap around the outside of the frame and locate in an angled groove. t is important to start the crosses from the riight side and hard weave the first cross. I will put some pictures on this website and the UKSA site sometime next week.
February 5th
Second day nearly over now, and for those that may think tournament stringing is an easy life, the first day of thie event requires you to be ready to string from 8.00am until after the last match has finished and in yesterdays case that was after 11.30pm.
In was raining heavy when I got in this morning and I think it will be raining when I leave at about 10.30pm Hippee an early night!!!
Been a steady stream of rackets tonight luckily not to many Carlton X67, black string, black rackets, black grommets, black floor, poor light, not a good combination!!!
I have a lay in tomorrow play does noit start until noon so a late breakfast and get in for around 10.30.
Ths is a strange tournament to string at as most of the business is from the public you know that a stringer will be there and provide a constant supply of rackets. Most of the players string sufficient rackets before they arrive and you tend only to get breakages or a small number of players that what to try new strings
February 6th
Sunday saw only a handfull of rackets from members of the public. Plenty of talking during the weekend with the public giving them advice on strings, stringing, stringing machines. These discussions form a large part of stringing at these events and you have to be able to concentrate both on the stringing and talking to the public. Meet someone who had strung for Carlton for 25 years back in the 60's and 70's and a really interesting guy who supported a junior badminton club in Africa and wanted to donate and ship out an electronic stringing machine and up to 12 months supply of string.
2010
AEGON Series Event Frinton on Sea 10 - 19 July 2010
I will be stringing at the above event from this Saturday for a week. Anyone in the area please drop by for chat.
This is the old Futures level event for players ranked between approx 200 and 400 in the world so some good players on view.
The mens event was won last year by Josh Milton, and the womens by Heather Watson who shortly after won the Junior Girls event at the US Open!!
Saturday 10th
11.am Car loaded and ready to head off to Frinton. Weather really not good for unpacking the car or stringing, currently 24C and expected to rise to at least 27C hopefully a nice sea breeze will calm things down!!
With only the men here this week its been a steady day 14 rackets in since lunchtime and all 14 strung. Would normally leave at least one racket for the morning but it was nice to see them all done and it have an early night having left the club at 8.30pm.
Sunday
First practise courts booked for 10am so I will arrive by 9am ready for any player arriving early.
Only 9 rackets booked in and completed today. Managed to watch some good tennis. In the second round of qualifying only two seeded players did not progress to the final round. Nick Cavaday lost 6-4, 6-4 to Francesco Vilardo (ITA) and Mathew Short lost to Tom Farquharson (of junior wimbledon boys doubles event) 7-5,4-2 ret.
Monday
Its a wet day here in Frinton the start of play being delayed currently to 2pm with no wind or sun to dry the courts it could be a long day! Spending time updating blogs, and dinking coffee.
No play today but more rackets booked in and strung than on any other day of the tournament so far, 15!!
Tuesday
Noon, still no play courts still damp from yesterday's rain. The sky is brighter so hopefully we should see some play this afternnon. Just had an interesting conversation with one of the two players from Malta who is not a full time professional but recently represented Malta at Davis Cup. alta play in the Division below GB and play in European zone 3 which is played over a week at one venue, this year Athens. The eleven countries are divided into two leagues with the top two in each league playing off and the top three going up into zone two the following year. Malta finished 6.
Final round of qualifiers played last today so currenlty one day behind. Lets hope for a fine day tomorrow!
Only four rackets booked in and completed today.
Wednesday
Bright and sunny day, should get the first round of singles played before the expected rain falls later today, lets hope for more rackets.
Keeping busy setting up an online shop selling string, grips etc so watch this space for further details and launch date.
Also racketstringing is now geared up to take payment by credit card so if anyone is posting rackets to me there is now no need to send money with the rackets I will contact you when the stringing is complete and take card payment over the phone before posting the rackets back..
The bright sunny day enabled first round of matches to be played. Only six rackets booked in and strung. Strung a few club rackets and a couple for the club shop and managed to watch the matches.
Thursday
Round two and quarters of the singles being played today, had a knock early in the morning with the player Alex Sadecky and I have never played in such a strong wind, saddly whilst the wind is a great leveler it still did not bring his play down to mine.
Only four rackets today and a number of club rackets.
Friday
Singles and double semi finals and the doubles final, some reat matches again played in a strong wind. Dan Cox overcame Colin Ebelthite, and Josh Goodall beat Vardhan the number 2 seed from India.
The doubles final saw the underdogs Bradshaw and Ludlow beat Goodall and Eaton, fantastic match.
Only one racket done.
Saturday
Daniel Cox beat Josh Goodall 7-6, 6-2. After a close first set the 6 matches over the two previous days took its toll on Goodall to leave Cox the winner.
Only one racket strung from Goodall so a grand total of 54 rackets in the week and about 10-12 club and shop rackets.
Mostly poly strings used with only a small number using syn gut, lowest tension 44lbs and the highest 63lbs. Alu Power still the most popular string used by over 60% of the players.
AEGON INTERNATIONAL - EASTBOURNE, 9th to 19th JUNE 2010
Thursday 10th June
Sitting in the stringing room and waiting for the players to start practising after the rain earlier today.
Stringing team of up to seven stringers are sponsored by Babolat this year who have provided machines, clothing, posters, racket racks, etc to create a professional appearance.
Not many rackets through yet but with sunny weather pridicted tomorrow and qualifying starting on Saturday we expect a big rush tomorrow
Well Eastbourne now a distant memory of around 400 rackets. Lowest tension was Julian Knowle who amazingly had his strung at 34lbs!! The highest tension was around 62lbs so a huge range, it would be interesting for the highest and lowest tension players to swop rackets to see whether either could cope with the others tension or whether the best players can easily adapt!!
National Badminton Championships
5th to 7th February 2010
Manchester Velodrome
Back from my fourth year as stringer at the National Badminton Championships and what a backdrop the Velodrome provides to this event.
Worked again with www.sportdiscount.com and with Carlton promoting there x67 badminton braided multifiliment string.
Very busy all three days with rackets from players and the public. It was good to see and chat with the four fellow UKRSA members who attended either with sons playing in the event of just there to watch the top english players perform.
x67 proved a popular string with most of the Carlton sponsored players using it. Tensions appear to be coming down with the highest tension being 28lbs and the lowest 24lbs.
Thanks to Steve for the above picture and others he took as part of his work for the event website.
Babolat attended this year to promote their new range of rackets and I had the opportunty to string a number of them and was pleased to see that because of the string pattern they have offset some of the grommet holes and made the stringers life a lot easier!!
2009
AEGON Pro-Series Frinton on Sea 11th to 18th July 2009
Saturday 11th
Just packed the car and ready to go, expecting in excess of 100 rackets this week but if the weather is changeable it could be many more! Must go now need to be there before players arrive for practise. Vets event held at Frinton last week so it will be interesting to see how the grass courts are standing up!
Monday 13th
First chance this morning to provide an update. Saturday saw 25 rackets booked in from 3pm plus another 6 from club members. Left at ten pm with 12 players rackets to do on Sunday.
Sunday saw very few (6) players rackets booked in so was able to clear backlog and do all members rackets. Should be busier Monday and tuesday as main draw players arrive
Frinton Tennis club on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
Wednesday 16th July
Second round of main draw today with seeds being knocked out in the windy conditions. Up to 60 rackets strung for players and about ten for club members. The projected surge on Monday did not appear either players are now waiting for their strings to break, or they are carrying more rackets or they are stringing rackets themselves! Been on site each day from at the latest 8.30am and today was the earliest home at 8.30pm. Quaterfinals tomorrow so hopefully players will want their rackets strung before their big matches.
Thursday 17th
All quarterfinals played today and seven out of eight semifinalists being british Greg Jones from Australia being the exception. Only three rackets in today and a couple from members so plenty of time to sit and watch some excelant tennis. Thunderstorms over night but hopefully the courts will be fit for play on time tomorrow.
AEGON International Tennis at Eastbourne 14th to 20th June 2009
Tuesday 9th June
Packed car and drove to Eastbourne arriving at midday. Met up with Liam Nolan and Helen who will be working on the desk for us for most of the tournament. We have been located in the main building on the second floor with windows looking out over court 1 with plenty of room to accommodate all seven stringers who will be working on the busiest days and all our odds and ends.
Plenty going on with contractors setting up the venue ready for the weekend. A few players about but regretably weather not good and no practise on the grass courts being allowed. So only one racket through today hopefully the weather will not be as bad as suggested tomorrow and a steady stream of rackets will be coming off the machines.
Eastbourne 9th June.View over Court one
Wednesday 10th June
Little action today weather not good. Spend day getting set up ready for the fine weather tomorrow, when we expect most of the players to turn up and practise.
Centre Court
Thursday 11th
More rackets in today and up to 3 stringers. Longer day finished at 8.30pm
Friday 12th
Four stringers and more rackets all the big names now turning up for practise and those playing in the qualifiers practising hard for Saturdays matches.
Saturday 13th
Got in at 8am two additional stringers today so up to six to cope with the number of rackets. Weather fine all day with first and second round of qualifying played today for both the men and women. Writing this blog with seven rackets remaining to be strung in the morning.
Sunday 14th
Main draw players now arriving for practise so many more rackets recieved for stringing. Seven rackets done and really before players required them and a steady stream continued throughout the day. With six stringers all working hard we managed to clear the backlog and leave only a handfull for the morning.
Tuesday 16th June
The team at work
Saturday 20th
Quote below from Liam Nolan regarding the final day
'Most of the equipment packed in the vans, two machines on standby for the finals. First is the ladies singles;
Virginie Razzano (France) - Head Prestige - Vs one-piece RTW @ 25.5k
Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) - Babolat Aero - Mains Babolat Red, Crosses VS @ 25k.
Next is the mens singles;
Frank Dancevic (Canada) - Wilson K Blade - Mains Big Banger Alu Pwr, Crosses VS @ 18k. His opponent - and my good friend - is Dmitri Tursunov - Wilson K Blade - mains are Big Banger Ace 112 and Alu Pwr crosses @ 49lbs.
Ladies Doubles;
Samantha Stosur (Aus) - Bab Pure Storm - mains Big Banger Alu Pwr @ 62lbs, crosses VS with pre-stretch @ 53lbs. Sam is playing with;
Rennae Stubbs (Aus) - Bab Pure Storm - mains are VS with pre-stretch, crosses Bab Red @ 56lbs.
Their opponents;
Akgul Amanmuradova (Uzb) - Bab Pure Drive - Pro Hurr one-piece @ 28/27k and Ai Sugiyama (JPN) - Prince O3, mains Recoil @ 50lbs, crosses Prince gut - pre-stretch @ 52lbs.
Frank Dancevic is in the stringing room right now, relaxing and going over his match plan against Tursunov. The Players Lounge is not always an easy place to relax and several players have opted to spend some quiet time up here away from the pack. They have free coffee if they put on the kettle!
Before the players went on court we had some top class opera singers entertain the crowd for 30 mins, really beautiful and so good to hear it live, a 30 secs walk from the stringing room to the top of the stands on Centre Court.
Caroline Woznaicki with Trophy
Well home now and equipment unpacked.
2008
ITF Futures $15k mens & $10k womens
Frinton on Sea, Essex
12 to 19 July 2008
The UKRSA provide stringers for many of the ITF Futures and Challenger events in the UK each year and with Frinton being a short distance from home it is an ideal event for me to be the tournament stringer.
Arrived about noon on Saturday and having checked in with the ITF supervisor setup on the stage of the ballroom. The room was to be used as the players lounge for most of the week. Several players had already arrived and were practising on the grass courts; players for qualifying had to sign in by 6pm. First racket booked in around 2pm Babolat PD, Pro Hurr Tour @ 25/26, then Weidemann, Babolat Aero Gel, Pro Hurr @26.5/26.5, Marshland, Fischer Dunlop Xpolsive 54/54, Podlewski, Head Flexpoint, Signum Pro Plasma, 26/26, Bradshaw, Wilson K factor BB/VS 53/55, Bidmeade, Prince O3 Tour Signum Pro Poly Plasma 54/54, Campbell, Wilson K Control, BB/VS 60/60 and so on until at the end of the day 28 players rackets and 2 club member rackets had been booked in. Through the day it became clear that players for the main draw not starting until Tuesday had arrived early.
To ensure that players playing matches in the qualifiers on the Sunday had their rackets in time it was important to ensure these were strung first and with this in mind I continued to string 16 rackets before leaving for the day, leaving 14 for the Sunday.
With such a large backload I arrived at 8am the next morning and started stringing. Still the rackets came thick and fast, Reichmann Wilson K Factor, BB 26/25, Thompson, Prince O2 White, Pro’s Pro Cosmo Power 26/25 (this string apparently is not in the Pro’ Pro Catalogue and had been bought by the players on ebay from Italy!!),Arlidge, Head Aero Pro, Match Pro 48/48, Smethurst, Dunlop 500g, Dunlop Xpolosive, 56/56. At the end of the day a further 15 rackets were booked in and I had strung 23 still leaving 4 for the next day.
Arrived early again on Monday and started with a club members racket with Texflex nice and soft after all the Big Banger! A steady stream of 19 rackets booked in nothing unusual and managed to string 21 by the end of the day clearing the backlog and leaving time in the morning to quickly do any racket brought in for a 10am match.
Tuesday, saw a further 14 rackets and two more from members so plenty of time to string them all and watch some of the play. Had only one rush job for Greg Jones a Babolat PD BB/VS 53/55, he was on court and wanted a fresh racket in his bag. Tuesday also saw a change in the players lounge, through to Friday they had to share it with the umpires! This changed the atmosphere completely and the players tended to drift away from the area.
Wednesday saw only 6 player’s rackets and several members rackets who inform me that they only get their rackets strung when the ITF event comes to town, and these are players who play 6 or 7 times a week!! I hopefully educate them, give them my card and tell them that as I only live 5 miles away and I expect them to come back to me before next year.
Thursday saw heavy rain and only one match completed and one racket booked in Jones again wanting fresh strings for his match.
Friday returned to fine weather and the programme was caught up except for one match. Jones again wanted a fresh set for his semi and was the only player’s racket. As the ballroom was being used for hospitality Friday and Saturday the players moved to the bar, the umpires to the coffee bar and me to the timber shed being used by the tournament referee.
Saturday, finals day saw some rain but all matches completed, again Greg Jones has fresh strings for his final against Micheal Koning, with Koning winning 6-4, 6-3. The Women’s was won by Tara Moore defeating Mona Barthel 7-5, 6-1. As the referee had gone home the night before I assisted with issuing balls for practise, made the public announcements and provided any other help required. Including being asked to find a ball for the women’s doubles final that was approximately 5 games old!!!
So in conclusion strung 95 rackets in the week, a maximum of 23 in one day, Babolat Pure Drive was the most popular racket, Big Banger still the most popular string either on its own or as a hybrid with VS gut, highest tension 64lbs and lowest 48lbs.
National Badminton Championships
1-3 February 2008
Manchester Velodrome
Back from stringing at the above tournament for the second year working with sportdiscount.com last Friday Saturday and Sunday.
Friday saw 17 rackets all from players, it was clear that in the last twelve months players had changed to lower tensions and know more about the machine they normally used to string thier rackets. Tensions had dropped from an average or nearly 30lb last year to 26 to 28 this year and all were using a lock out machine.
Saturday saw 15 rackets all from the public other than one from a player and a brand new racket from yonex still under wraps and with no name, apparently it will be launched at the English open in March.
Sunday saw only 7 rackets a chance to watch some of the play and a busy time helping sportdiscount staff on the retail stands.
As last year it was long days, Friday 8am to 11pm, Saturday 8am to 10pm and Sundy 10am to 8pm.
Saw and spoke to many interested in stringing and hopefully passed on some advise along the way.
2007
National Badminton Championships
2-4 February 2007
Manchester Velodrome
Day 1 Friday 2nd
Arrived at the Velodrome at 8am to unload stringing machine and equipment to be met by staff from www.sportdiscount.com with whom I would be working for the next three days. Set up machine, RAB Stringmaster 1000 with 2086 Electronic Head and foot control in place of the manual lockout head in a corner of their trade stand and laid out strings etc in small space behind machine.
Play started at 10am and before long players began to arrive bearing rackets for stringing, first racket to be strung with Yonex BG80 at 28lbs! Next a BG68 at 30lbs and from then a steady stream of rackets throughout the day.
Left venue after 10pm having strung 15 rackets feeling very tired and collapsed in hotel room.
Day 2 Saturday 3rd
Arrived at 9am play again started at 10am and again player’s rackets were the main part of the day’s work of 15 rackets. As with the Friday the public again brought in rackets for stringing and these were fitting in throughout the day between players rackets, and as with both the Friday and the Sunday a large part of the day was spend under the watchful eye of the public interested in stringing methods, the players rackets, the strings used and the tensions. This proved a great opportunity to impart information to the public who had no idea about different strings, tensions and the benefits of having a racket restung regularly.
Left venue at 10pm still with three players rackets to string ready for the finals on Sunday.
Day 3 Sunday 4th
Arrived at 9am in plenty of time to string the outstanding player’s rackets before the finals started and the four rackets dropped off by members of the public with the hope of then being able to watch some of the finals. However I did not anticipate the number of the rackets that would appear when the doors opened and it soon become clear that I would be working until the finals finished and would only see the odd minute or two of the badminton. Fortunately I managed to see the conclusion of the Mixed Doubles with Emms and Robertson losing to Kellogg and Clarke for the first time to domestic opposition in six years! My stringing was then put under pressure by Gail Emms asking for two rackets to be strung before her ladies doubles final in two finals time. However rackets were completed on time and Emms & Kellogg when on to win with neither racket breaking!!
Lessons learnt from the weekend
Try and prepare for all eventualities, the 2086 electronic head was a real success coped with all I throw at it. Discuss every stringing job with the player ensure they tell you, what string, what tension and more importantly what type of machine they normally use. You would be surprised at how many do not know what they want!! Ensure you take sufficient meal and drink breaks through the day, it may be the only time you see any play!! Be prepared for any question asked by the public, they like to watch and question you’re every action. And finally enjoy it!!
Would I do it again, yes, it has hard work but great fun, and good to be part of the www.sportdiscount.com team.
Statistics
Total rackets strung - 45
Player’s most popular rackets – Yonex Nano series
Highest tension – 30lb
Lowest tension – 24lb
Most popular string – Yonex BG80
Easiest racket to string – Head Mettallix 8000 and Wilson NCode