Well, today is my final day of stringing for the Wimbledon Championships 2008. So far I've strung for 8 days, non-consectutively. I worked through the longest days of stringing and come out the other end. Its been hard work, and long hours, but they are also rewarding times, especially having worked with other great stringers and sharing techniques.

Middle Sunday is always likely to be quite as there's no competitive play, and players tend to have a more relaxed day. By the end of the day I've only strung about 8 rqts, but I did string a rqt for Tammy Tanasugaran who played, and beat, Jelana Jankovic on the Monday. I aso strung a rqt for Richard Gasquet who also played Andy Murray on the Monday.

Over the days that I've been stringing here I've strung around 175 rqts.

I'm already looking forward to next year's tournament, and to seeing how the stringing arrangements & team may have changed.

I will make a final entry shortly which will summorise the information I've noted while working this year. This info will have num of rqts strung, players strung for, tensions, & rqts.

So please check back for this information

Regards

Paul

I return to Wimbledon having had a couple of days off from stringing at the tournament, although I've been continuing to string fro my usual customers. When I arrive there aren't too many rqts waiting to be done so it would seem that today won't be that busy. As it the end of the week we also start to get a few junior players rqts in.

Stringing through the day is at a steady pace and as suspected we don't reach the number of rqts from earlier in the week. The evening concludes with the match between Mario Ancic and David Ferrer. My interest is that I have strung another 3 rqts for D. Ferrer. While the match is coming to a close, which is gone 9pm, I'm on my way home but listening to it on the radio. I'm a bit disappointed that 'my rqts' have lost.

I have another days leave before I back up on middle Sunday for my last day of stringing.

Regards

Paul

Following on from the previous night, I end up getting about 6 hours sleep. I awake feeling ok and not too tired, but my fingers are sore and my hand feels like its cramping, After some breakfast I walk across Wimbledon Park and arrange at the stringing room around 8am. Again a couple of other stringer have been in a bit earlier so our work doesn't look so bad. The first rqts I pick up ar Arnaud Clement. Hi rqts are strung with all Babolat natural gut @ a fairly low 23/22 kgs. His frames have 18 maine & 20 crosses, and overall this combination with gut is nice to work with.

Through the day we're able to work at a comfortable pace as the number of rqts is not near the previous couple of days. This is my last day of this stint stringing and so I end up leaving around 8.30pm. Through the day I've strung around 16 rqts including those of Nicholas Almegro, N. Petrova and doubles specialist Leander Paes.

During the past 5 days I've strung almost 120 rqts, thats an average of 24 a day

My next entry will relate to the 1st Friday.

Regards

As said in my previous entry and as today is the 1st day of the tournament, this is probably the busiest us stringers experience. There are players wanting racquets for practice and for matches. As before we get in around 8am. A couple of the stringers have ge in about an hour earlier to clear the racquets left from last night, or those racquets which are required to be strung in the morning. Some players prefer this, while some others have specified that their racquets are strung the night before they're needed.

I start with an east rqt, a Baboat Pure Drive Roddick plus with a hybrid stringing. You can't really get easy that that. Then I move on to 4 rqts for 1 player. By the time I've finished those rqts, players are starting to drop in more rqts. The weather has been good today so we''l expect to be bust through-out the day. Slowly, but surely the number of rqts we receive, and that I string start to increase. There's no stopping to watch any players on the practice courts.

In the early afternoon Frank Dancevic comes in wanting 4 rqts strung for his match against no.7 seed David Nalbandian. He request same string, but we're unsure who took them last. It may have been a stringer who's no longer there. So I take them and string them. We have a TV in the stringing room and when Dancevic's match comes on I make a note to follow it. He manages to produce a great display and wins in straight sets. As a string you tend to get a good feeling if 'your rqts' get through. I also do 3 rqts for no.5 seed David Ferrer. He too gets through.

The day continues and we know it's going to  be a long one. This holds true and we eventually leave around 1am in the morning. This has been a long, long day and ones fingers will feel it the next morning. In the end I strung around 34 rqts.

Tomorrow will also be busy, but not as bad as today.

Please check back for more updates.

Regards

Paul

Today along with tomorrow are known for being busiest days for stringing at Wimbledon. This is because the players are getting the last bit of practice in and trying to adjust their tensions, and also the players are getting their racquets ready for their 1st round matches. We expect this to be a long day, an so it proved.

I arrive around 8am having walked from my accommodation which is across Wimbledon Common in the Southfields area. I start with any easy racquet to which I had replaced some of the split grommets the previous night. Its a Fischer M-Speed for Ivo Minar and its strung with ALU Power at 24kg. We all get stuck in and this are looking quite good through the day as we try and keep on top of the racquets that have come in. However later in the day players start dropping their racquets off for late practice on early matches the next day. By now they tend to drop of several racquets each which very quickly starts putting the number of racquets to be strung.

By now we are starting to get players who request the same stringer or machine. I get two of these players who request my stringing services. This always give a string a good feeling as it underlines a professional players confidence in one abilities.

We eventually leave at around 12:15 in the morning knowing that later that day we'll be back in for another long day. I have strung 28 racquets today which is a good day for any stringer. We walk back to our accommodation, across Wimbledon common. As we we do we pass the people who have been camping out, queuing for tickets for the 1st day of play.

Please check back for further updates.

Regards

Paul

I'm writing this next few days accounts retrospectively as basically we've had some very long days and I've been too tired to write the entries on the day.

So, Saturday 21st June is my 2nd consecutive day of stringing and my 4th overall. We get in at around 8am to start on any racquets that were left from last night. Usually these are racquets fro players that need them around 10-11am for an early practice. The weather starts a bit mirky and we didn't expect any play by 11am. But they did get on court at around 11.30 and play is continous until about 7pm.

The 1st racquet I string today is for Nicholas Kiefer. Its a brand new Wilson K6.1. In fact it hasn't even got a grip on the handle. The handle pallett has been custom fitted so that its the same shape as Volkl racquet. It even has a Volkl logo at the top of the handle. I have to string it with Wilson natural gut and Luxilon Timo at 28kgs/27kgs. He also wants power pads at the throat area. Not the easiet of racquets to start with but I get it strung fairly easily. Throughout the day I end up stringing 21 racquets. Of the racquets of note are a racquet for Fabrice Santoro the opponent of Andy Murray, and a racquet for H.T. Lee which is a racquet from a Korean company, and it is strung with natural gut and ALU Power at a tension of 72lbs and 61lbs. Which is extremely tight even for a pro.

Please continue to read my blog for further days experiences.

regards

Paul

Well, here it goes, the start of 5 days slog over the busiest days stringing at Wimbledon.

I arrived just before 10am to see 4 other stringers already there. There isn't many racquets to be done. Once settled in I pick upt 2 racquets for Mats Wilander who's Paul-Herni Mathieu coach now. He has 2 Yonex RDS 001 string wil Luxilon Alu Power @ 24kg. Mathieu has also dropped 1 rqt in and I take that aswell as I have his reel of string. Over the day I end up stringing around 15 rqts. During the day another 2 stringers arrive. They were sorting things out at Roehampton. The number of racquets coming in and going out is quite steady throughout the day and we're not really pushed too much. At around 4pm it starts to rain and play is suspended on the practice courts. Over the next hours ti stops and start raining again and so no further play is possible. Due to this we don't get many more racquets in. We end up leaving at around 6:30pm leaving a couple of rqts for 1st thing tomorrow. We plan to get in around 8:30am and we expect it to be a longer day as player will want as much practice as possible.

Of note :  I did 1 racquet for Nicholas Mahut, the finalist of the 2007 Stella Artois tournament.. I also did 1 for Donald Young at a tension of 69lbs, which is very tight for such a racquet.

Please check back later for the next days update.

regard

Paul

After we'd finished working yesterday, a few of us went to our local watering hole for a couple of drinks and something to eat. While there we met up with the newest member of the Priority 1 stringing team, Glynn Roberts. Glynn used to be a member of the Bow Brand Wimbledon stringing team before joining P1. We al have a chat about the days work and what's be going on in the 'behind the scenes' of the stringing world. We leave around 11pm and head back to our accommodation, which is just along the road and to sleep.

Today, Sunday, is another good day for the weather – clear and sunny but with a bit of a breeze. I arrive at around 9am at the Wimbledon stringing room, which is where I'll be based for the day and I'll be the only stringer there. I string the 1 racquet that I left yesterday and then await some more from the players who are practising here. It's not until about 11:30am that a racquet comes in and the player, Ranjeev Ram, request that it is done straightaway. No problems here. I take the racquet and string it. It's a Wilson K6.1 Tour 90 with a Wilson natural gut/Luxilon ALU Power hybrid. While I string that one another comes in from Ryan Sweeting and wants it for 1pm. I finish up the Wilson racquet and start on the next one which is a Babolat. Again a straight forward racquet that requires a straight  forward hybrid. In the mean time the stringing room at Roehampton is taking in a lot of racquets and so they send 6 racquets over for me to do. None of the racquets I get are difficult or awkward and I make a start on them. It approximately 4:30pm and it would appear that we'll be getting away around the same time as yesterday. However Roehampton call up and say that they're inundated with racquets which are required for the start of play on Monday. With that they send over a 2nd string to Wimbledon along with another dozen racquets. Between myself and the other stringer, Karen, we make a start on the racquets and clear the most important ones. We leave a couple which need to be strung on Monday morning and we finish up around 8:30pm. I'm now head home and I'll return on Friday.

Overall between the 6 stringers at Roehampton and Wimbledon we strung around 120 racquets, and I completed most of mine in the afternoon. This number will dip slightly over the next couple of days, but by the time I return on Friday it will pick up to somewhere in the region of 260 racquets. I had try to compile a list of the racquets I had strung, but when time is pressing I not able to make this notes. I'll try and get a list of the main draw players racquets later in the week and maybe with some pictures.

Until then, good-bye.

Paul