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Australian Open 2012 – 14 Jan
Day 7 – Kids Day
Today is kids day at Melbourne Park. All kids get in for free. It is the final day of qualifying matches and there are exhibition matches on other courts. There are activities everywhere to keep the kids interested. We have a stringing display again this year and I am the man for the job. I am on a small stage outside the stringing room stringing racquets beneath a couple of umbrellas. I did the same thing last year but I had a microphone so I could speak to the crowd. There is no microphone this year so I fail to draw the huge crowds that I had last year. Fortunately I have no on-court racquets while I am on stage. It is difficult to string outside with the stringbed partly in shade. I end up doing 4 hours on stage. Last year it was only 2 hours. The longer performance surely warrants extra pay. I make a mental note to speak with Ron about this.
Jim does a live interview today for Australian Open TV. It screens on the big screen here during a break in one of the exhibition matches. He is not happy being on camera although it doesn’t show.
Even though we are 2 days out from the start of the first Slam of the year the room is still pretty quiet. We have some racquets coming in during the afternoon but no one is pushed.
I don’t need any Red Bull today.
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.
