Here are two more great videos from the Wilson Stringing Room at the 2012 Australian Open. Enjoy…

Thanks for checking in.

DH

This video is from last year’s Australian Open, but it is still cool to watch – at least for me. The video mentions a record of stringing 378 racquets in a day. Note: That record was eclipsed at the 2011 U.S. Open when the Wilson Stringing Team strung 490 racquets in a day! Impressive. The Wilson Stringing Team certainly employs some of the world’s best stringers.

Check out this “Wildcard” character that hosts the video. He’s a groover.

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DH

In the video below, Wilson Stringing Team Member, Tadashi Hosoya, talks about stringing racquets for Kei Nishikori at the 2012 Australian Open. At the first Grand Slam of the year, the Wilson Team is picking up right where they left off at the U.S. Open… Turning out MANY high-quality string jobs.

Looks sunny and warm down there – as I sit here in Ohio where it is 18 degrees Fahrenheit and snowing.

Enjoy…

Thanks for checking in.

DH

In 2011, Babolat replaced Tecnifibre as the official stringing service of the French Open. In the following videos from Babolat, they walk you through the various steps of the stringing process in what they call “the Babolab”. The audio on most of these videos is in French, but they provide written captions in English. Enjoy…

Thanks for checking in.

DH

Special thanks to Scott and Matt Guenther for sending me these great pictures from inside the stringing room and around the grounds at the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston. The stringers, Randy and Gary, informed Scott and Matt that they’ve been stringing more Luxilon Alu Power than any other string – with Babolat RPM Blast coming in a close second. As you can see in the pictures below, the stringers are using Prince 5000 stringing machines.

Thanks again, Scott and Matt, and to the rest of you… Thanks for checking in.

DH

Here is a great video from the ATP called “Stringers” that features Nate Ferguson from Priority One. This video gives some fairly basic yet interesting information about stringing on the pro tour and certainly emphasizes the importance of strings and a high-quality stringjob.

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DH

This video is a little old (2009 U.S. Open), but it is still worth watching for a bit of a behind-the-scenes looks at the Wilson Stringing Team and the U.S. Open Stringing Room.  Enjoy.

Thanks for checking in.

DH

As I wrote a couple of days ago, the Wilson Stringing Team is providing the official, on-site stringing service at the 2010 Australian Open.  (Of course, the guys from Priority One are there – off-site – taking care of their clients like Fed and Any Murray, but for the majority of players, the Wilson Stringing Team is on center stage.)  For some additional cool photos from down under, click here.

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DH

The Wilson Stringing Team is, once again, the official racquet stringing service of the Australian Open. Check out these photos courtesy of Grand Slam Stringers.

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DH

Walk into any stringing room on the pro tour – especially on the men’s side, and you’ll see polyester tennis string…  tons of it.  Polyester tennis strings, commonly referred to as polys, have almost completely replaced natural gut as the string choice of the pros.  (Note:  Many pros still use natural gut as the cross strings in hybrid setups – with polys in the mains.)  Why is this?  Why are polys being used by an overwhelming amount of pros?  Allow me to explain…

In the modern era of tennis, players are physically strong, and racquet technology has evolved to create powerful frames.  In contrast to past decades, pro tennis players do not need power from their strings.  In fact, they need the exact opposite – they need low-powered strings that temper the power of their bodies and their frames and provide more control.  Polys meet these needs perfectly.

Polys are stiff, low-powered strings.  As such, polys allow players to take big, fast swings at the ball, and because of the fast racquet head speed, players are able to generate insane amounts of topspin – the kind of topspin that makes the ball dive out of the air and land just inside the lines.

And of all the various polyester string brands on the market, Luxilon is, by far and away, the most popular.  In fact, according to Luxilon’s website, 51% of all racquets strung at the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open contained Luxilon in the mains, crosses, or both.  (And of those players using Luxilon, the majority of them were using it in a full stringbed – both mains and crosses.)  While I do not have any hard data to support this, I believe Luxilon Big Banger Alu Power is the most popular type of Luxilon string on tour.

There is something incredibly special about freshly strung Luxilon (freshly being the key word – as it loses playability fairly quickly).  The pros know this, and they choose Luxilon – despite the fact that Luxilon does not pay anyone to use their strings.  (Sure, the elite of the elite get free string from Luxilon, but no one gets sponsorship money.)  According to Luxilon’s blog “Luxilon on Tour“…

Luxilon is one of the few companies – and maybe the onlycompany – in professional tennis that does not pay top players who use its products. It does provide free product to a number of players – but the majority of top players do, in fact, purchase Luxilon strings.

In an industry in which millions are paid to players to use manufacturers’ products, the fact that the majority of top players choose to purchase and play with Luxilon strings, in preference to receiving compensation for using other manufacturer’s products, says more about the quality and performance of Luxilon than any ad or marketing hype.

To me, this speaks volumes about the playability of Luxilon.

Luxilon Big Banger Alu Power Rough is my personal string of choice (full bed), and it has been for almost a year and a half now.  Like many players, I tried Alu Power Rough because the pros use it, but…  I continue to play with it because of its outstanding playability and the incredible spin/action I get on the ball with it.  Over the past year and a half, I’ve tried other strings – even several hybrid setups, but I always quickly return to Alu Power Rough.  Like J011yRoger, a fellow board member on Talk Tennis, wrote, “Alu Power Rough is like gray crack.” 

And I am addicted.

Thanks for checking in.

DH