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Day 10 – US Open Sat 27th August 2011
No one really knows what is going on with the hurricane coming. All public transport stops operating from midday. This means that the shuttle buses are our only way to and from the centre. If we miss the last shuttle bus then we will be stranded at the centre. The morning shuttle bus driver has told us that all bridges and tunnels are closing at 3pm. Everything will be closed on Sunday. New York is shutting down. This is not ideal. Sunday is our biggest day. In Melbourne this year we did 378 racquets on the Sunday. We would expect a similar number here. To make things worse we are only going to be operating for half a day today.
I arrive in the morning to find that the 5 racquets I have due has become 7. I really need to motor. With the main draw players arriving we are starting to see a lot of multiple frames dropped off. Players are dropping off 3 to 6 frames at time. This is not great. When we string multiple frames they have to all be done at the same time to ensure that they are all the same. So when a player drops off 6 frames it puts the stringer out of action for an extended period of time.
In half a day of work we do 200 frames. The racquets just keep coming. Some of the players are asking for Sunday morning collection. They haven’t heard that there is no tennis on Sunday.
The last shuttle leaves at 3pm. We are on it. We have covered all of the machines in plastic in case we have water in the stringing room. We get back to the room around 3.30. I go to bed straight away and don’t wake up until 9am the next day.
Shane Mikic is the pro-shop manager for the Tennis Gear stores and their online store www.tennisgear.com.au in Brisbane. He has over 16 years racquet stringing experience and is currently part of the Wilson Global Stringing Team at the 2011 US Open. The following blog shares his experiences during his time in the Wilson Stringing room.
