Underneath Rod Laver Arena, a group of tennis specialists cut and twist and weave – intently focused on their preparation for the action on the blue court a few metres above their heads. In the lead-up to the Australian Open, these experts maintain a consistent workload, training their muscles and technique, ready to peak as if they were the athletes taking to the courts themselves. But they won’t step on the court – their unique domain is tennis rackets. Racket stringing, specifically, and as the Yonex string team leader, Jim Downes, has learned over his 30-year stringing career, “it’s a high demand job”.
The world’s top tennis players are, unsurprisingly, “very particular” about how their rackets are strung, Downes says, referring to how tight or loose the strings that crisscross the frames are pulled. A highly strung racket generally offers its user more control but less power, while the opposite is true for a racket with lower tension. “A lot of people know how to string,” he says. “You have your shop stringers, but they might not be quick enough to do this job and maybe not consistent enough for the players’ needs at this level.”
The job in question is servicing the stringing needs of the tournament’s 800 or so athletes as a part of Yonex’s 22-person team. British stringer Sarah Bloomfield, who is at her second Australian Open, says those needs vary depending on the player and the venue. “I think the weather is the biggest factor on how it affects them playing,” she says. “They all arrive in Australia and up their tension because it’s hotter so the ball travels faster, so, they all want more control.”
At Melbourne Park the process starts when a player or their coach drops off their rackets, tension instructions and usually their chosen string to the dedicated stringing room. The rackets are whisked into a back room where the existing strings are unceremoniously cut and yanked out of the frame. A hungry-looking machine stands ready to consume the used strings for recycling – although it is temporarily out of action after it “started smoking a little bit”, Downes says. The empty frames travel to the main room next door, where Downes assigns them to a stringer.
“Sometimes I’ll let the stringer pick if they have a favourite player they want to string for,” he says. “But generally we keep the top 10 seeds with the stringers that are going to be here until the end. Just for consistency, you keep the same player with the same stringer.” The stringing team slowly shrinks as the tournament progresses and the losing players depart, leaving behind the most experienced stringers to work at the pointy end of the competition. Sometimes, a wildcard makes it further than expected and that can throw a spanner in the works, but consistency is always key.
There is a focused but relaxed atmosphere in the main stringing room – the tension reserved for the strings alone, at least at this stage of qualifying. The hum of activity from above ground trickles in and is punctuated by the snips, clicks, whirrs and beeps of the stringers at work. An empty racket frame is laid flat on the stringing machine, and the tension level set. The main strings that run in the direction of the handle are dealt with first: threaded through the small holes in the racket frame, clamped in place, pulled to tension by the machine, and knotted by hand. The cross strings are next, the stringer manually weaving the fibre under and over the taut main strings.
A moment for the strings here, please, the real heavy hitters on the court. Animal intestines were the material of choice for a century, woven into strong fibres that could be stretched across a wooden frame. In the 1970s, natural string made from cow gut was still the norm in tennis rackets. However, polyester entered the scene in the early 1990s. “It provided more spin and more durability, but it can have some negative effects on the body,” Downes says. “The wrists, the elbows, the shoulders – the impact takes its toll over time.” As a result, natural strings had a bit of a resurgence, and now most players use a hybrid that combines the power of the gut strings with the strength and control of the synthetic.
Being on tour means long days manipulating strings for one racket after another. Stringers have periods of steady work interspersed with urgent mid-match requests. “Always the adrenaline starts pumping a little bit, but it’s all about consistency,” Bloomfield says. “So we string at a relatively fast pace anyway. For an on-court racket, you’re maybe just a little bit more focused.” The profession comes with its own challenges, of course – calloused hands and aching feet from standing still for so long. “You’ll find in my toolkit I’ve got plasters and bandages and all sorts,” she says. “The more you string the easier it gets because your hands harden up. They do hurt, but after a while, you can’t feel it.”
The final step is stencilling – no hi-tech machines here – a fluffy paint stick does the job just fine. Even when the rackets have left the room, the stringers can’t help but get caught up in the competition. “There’s always little rivalries between the stringers,” Bloomfield says. If two players go head-to-head who have just had their rackets restrung, they are loyal to their work. “[It] makes it fun, just that added little bonus for the long days. Unfortunately, my player just lost, so I had more work to do.”
It’s a strange phenomenon that you could hone your craft over years to reach the height of your profession, only for someone else reaching the height of theirs to smash your handiwork into an unrecognisable shape. But Downes says the stringers don’t take it personally. “I think the [sponsoring] companies feel worse about that than the stringers do,” he says. “It’s just an angry outburst. They need to release it somehow.” As for Bloomfield, who like many in the room played tennis before she learned to string, she now watches tennis through a different lens. “I have a huge love for the staff around it,” she says. “So watching the umpires or the ball kids or whatever it is, I feel like part of that team. There’s always a bit of a sense of pride.”
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