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Australian Open 2012 – 21 Jan
Day 14 – Juniors and Kukushkin
We are kept busy this morning. In addition to the morning batch of racquets from Kukushkin we have a lot of junior players dropping off racquets for the start of the junior tournament tomorrow. The junior racquets are fun to string. There are a lot of Babolats with open patterns and hybrid string. They are a breeze to string. I could string these all day.
Medina Garrigues cannot find the racquet we sent out to her during the match last night. The issue takes hours to resolve and involves multiple calls from player reps and the tournament desk. We are being told that we have lost the racquet. Eventually they contact the runner who collected the racquet from us to take onto court. She had left the racquet in the player’s bag while she was being treated for the injury. A quick count of the racquets in her bag confirms that this is the case.
There are people everywhere. It is so busy outside. Apparently the ground passes have sold out. There is massive queue for beers at the bar opposite us for much of the afternoon. Many people are unable to get into the showcourts and they resort to watching the bigscreen instead.
I receive a round of applause from a guy who watches me string a racquet from start to finish. I didn’t know I was that good. Perhaps I should be selling tickets.
Kukushkin plays a marathon match against Monfils. He sends in two on-courts. One in the fourth set and one at the start of the fifth. I get both of them done in 15 minutes. The pattern we use produces a very hard weave on his particular racquets. I injure my hand while doing his second racquet. The ligament controlling the middle finger on my left hand is very sore. I am having trouble closing my hand and gripping string. I might have to call the trainer.
After the Kukushkin match I only have two racquets for Lisa Raymond to do. Then I am free to eat pizza and have a couple of drinks while watching the Hewitt match.
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 17 years racquet stringing experience and is currently part of the Wilson Global Stringing Team at the 2012 US Open. The following blog shares his experiences during his time in the Wilson Stringing room.
