Mathieu, stringer, is present all day behind the courts for this 44th edition of Petits As. Equipped with his stringing machine, he takes care of the rackets of future tennis professionals. Today he explains the importance of a shadow profession which is passed on through passion.
Present for the second consecutive year, Mathieu is one of those without whom the Mondial des Petits As could not take place. It is he who, in a stand in the heart of the village, strings the snowshoes of the hundreds of young people present over ten days at the Parc des Expositions. Mathieu is not only a stringer. Originally from Périgord, he now manages a resale shop for racket sports items: tennis rackets, badminton, padel, squash. Equipment for which he also takes care of laying the rope. “Stringing is an integral part of my job, it brings people into the store, it makes sales and it allowed me to be there, at an international tournament.”
After stringing the rackets during the 2025 edition of the Petits As tournament, Mathieu returned to the famous Mondial Tarbais. “My job of reselling racket sports items already takes up a lot of my time, I don’t often have the opportunity to travel to international events like this, so it’s a pleasure to take part in these events.”
Given the technical excellence that tennis requires from a very young age, the presence of a stringer is mandatory for a tournament to run smoothly. A profession that combines know-how, precision and dedication. “It’s the work of the shadows, if there is no rope, there is no play,” Mathieu tells us. “You have to do this with passion, you have to give a lot of time.”
“The racket is the working tool of professional players”
And if for tennis fans all rackets look the same, Mathieu dissects the specificities that exist. “There are two types of strings: multifilaments, these are very flexible strings but which break very quickly, dedicated to young people who have elbow pain. Then, for people who already know how to play well and who have a very regular breakage frequency, there are monofilaments, these are more resistant strings.”
Some young players, already professionals, break their racket strings after just a few hours of play. Others, looking for the best racquet feel in hand, replace their strings even before they break, in order to maintain optimal tension and good sensations with the ball.
A specificity that pushes Mathieu to constantly adapt to personalize the strings. “The racket is the working tool of professional players, this means that it must be adapted to the feelings of each player. We can change the strings every two, three, four hours. On the main circuit, it is even more advanced, we are changing the racket even more frequently: every seven games played, that is to say with each change of ball.”
