While Richard Gasquet plays this Wednesday evening in the Sifa tennis open in New Caledonia, and the Caledonian Maxime Chazal, eliminated in singles, will be on the courts from 4 p.m. in doubles, we invite you to discover a profession little known, but essential for players, that of stringer.
Erik Dufour and Claude Lindor (edited by JM) • Published on January 3, 2024 at 11:15 a.m., updated on January 3, 2024 at 11:18 a.m.
It is a little-known but essential profession that we invite you to discover today on the occasion of this fourth day of the Sifa New Caledonia Tennis Open. That of a roper.
So that the players compete in the best possible conditions, the organization has provided all the facilities on the Ouen Toro site. Racquet stringing offers a completely personalized service.
The Australian Thomas Fancutt prepares for his match and goes to the stringing room: “50 for the uprights and 50.9 for the crosspieces please. Can you stencil the brand’s logo in red?”
Before facing the French Benoît Paire and Hugo Grenier, in doubles, Tuesday evening [associé au Néo-Zélandais Ajeet Rai, ils se sont imposés 7-6, 6-3], Thomas Fancutt has his racket string renewed. We don’t keep anything and we start with something brand new. A la carte service.
“It varies depending on the players, explains Yohann Chabrol, tennis teacher and stringer. They do a lot of tests in training, they see how it goes and, based on it, they gauge their tension a little.”
The new string is installed in less than fifteen minutes with a well-established method and precision tools to meet the player’s exact requirements. “I position the ropes on the machine, I tighten them and, on this screen, I have the precise tension displayed”continues Yohann Chabrol.
Some players require different tension between the uprights and the crosspieces. The machine allows all settings. A manual knot concludes the first step. The dexterity of the stringer makes it easier to go upside down for the crosspiece part and the racket will soon respond to the player’s request.
The operation concludes with the stencil which shows the brand with which the player signed a contract. Operation completed, Thomas Fancutt can come and collect his recorded racket.
“They supply us with the stringing and can ask us to string on the same machinespecifies Alexis Beaujean, tennis teacher and roper too. This is what we try to do, since from one machine to another, there can be small differences in tension and therefore they can ask us to string all of their rackets on the same machine.”
The hardware is back up and running to meet the enormous stresses inflicted by player strikes. The stringers process almost forty rackets every day.
2024-01-03 00:15:06
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