Big Time! Tennis

String Check: USTA National Clay Courts 12s

2011-07-27T10:27:00.000-04:00

Last entry I discussed the rackets that some of the best 12 and under tennis players in the United States used at the USTA National Clay Courts. But as my friend Tom Parry of Pacific has often said, “rackets are just string holders.” So what types of strings did we see? Through the first three days, it looked like this:

All Multifilament -- 23.5%

All Synthetic Gut -- 12.0%

HYBRID -- 35.3%

All Monofilament -- 29.0%

These string combinations are listed from “hardest” to “softest” in terms of the feel of the string and the amount of shock that is transmitted to the players arm. (Operationally, the United States Racquet Stringers Association defines the “stiffness” of a string as the pounds of force per inch necessary to move the string. This ranges from the softest gut at 88 to the stiffest Kevlar at over 500. Most multifilaments are in the 180-200 range, synthetic guts are in the 200-220 range, and monofilaments range from 220 to over 300.)

The stiffness of the player’s stringbed is a big concern. I know many people who have developed wrist or elbow tendonitis from using strings that are too stiff. I worry about the long term consequences on a kid’s arm of using very stiff strings from a very young age. I advise my customers – regardless of age actually -- to use the softest string possible, and only move to harder strings when they begin to break strings more frequently than they can afford.

I was happy to see, therefore, that less than a third of the players were using all monofilament string jobs and slightly more than half were using all multifilament or all synthetic gut strings. The largest group of players were using hybrid strings (stiffer monofilament strings on the mains and softer strings on the crosses), which is a good compromise for people who play and break strings frequently.

Interestingly, one of the tournament sponsors, Babolat, gave each player a free pack of RPM Blast 17g. That is 128 sets in total, which is quite generous. I am not certain, however, that it is a good idea for 10, 11, and 12 year olds to be using all-RPMs. I often hear people characterize RPM as a “soft poly.” It is actually a very stiff sting (rated at 280 pounds). What people react to, I believe, is that it is more elastic than other earlier generation monofilament strings, giving it better “feel.” But the fact that it has more elasticity doesn’t mean that it won’t transmit a good deal of shock to the arm of a 11 year old kid. I just strung a Babolat Pure Drive with RPM at 62# and wonder about the long term effect of that on the player’s physical well-being. He did complain about shoulder pain after one of his matches and said (joking perhaps, though perhaps not) that he was going to drop 10# on his rackets after the tournament.

Speaking of tensions, almost one-quarter (23.5%) of all of the players we strung for were at 59# or higher, though some of those were stringing with all multifilament strings. The same proportion were stringing at 54# or lower, which I think is a good ceiling for most players (sting low!). No player strung below 50#, though. The majority of players strung between 55# and 58#, with the single most popular tension being 55#. In general, I found the string tensions reasonable in combination with the types of strings people were using.

In the end, I would say the “typical” racket being used by the players at this tournament was a Wilson with hybrid string job at 55#.

The most unique request was for a 9 year old player using a Wilson K-Blade junior model. The mother dropped off the racket and said she didn’t know the tension range, so I was going to string it at the middle of the range with a Gamma multifilament. She came back a moment later and said the kid’s coach texted her the tensions for the racket: 51.5# on the mains, and 50.5# on the crosses!

Bag Check: USTA National Clay Court 12s

2011-07-25T10:01:00.004-04:00

What rackets, strings, and tensions are some of the best 12 and under tennis players in the United States using? Stringing at the USTA National Clay Courts 12s at Hanes Park has given me some insights. Through 3 days of stringing, here is what we saw in terms of rackets. (More on strings and string tensions in the coming days.)

The most commonly used racket brands at this tournament are:

Babolat -- 32.3% of players stringing with us

Wilson -- 32.3%

Head -- 17.6%

Prince -- 6.0%

Tecnifibre – 6.0%

Yonex -- 6.0%

Brands not seen in the stringing room include Dunlop, Volkl, Donnay, Solinco, and Pacific.

Most popular racket models are the Babolat AeroPro Drive (including the lighter “Team” version), Wilson BLX 6.1, and the Head YouTek Speed. This is not at all surprising as these are the models endorsed by Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic, respectively.

The millions in endorsement dollars paid by these racket companies translate rather directly into racket choices by junior players. Of course, junior sponsorships help, and to be sure Babolat, Wilson, and Head are among the most liberal in doling out free and reduced price equipment. But many (most?) of the kids playing at this tournament could get full or partial sponsorship from any of these companies, so their choices are instructive.

One of the most interesting developments I notice in the decades since I was a junior tennis player is the decline of Prince among competitive juniors. Only 6% of players we strung rackets for used Prince. In the 1980s, if memory serves correctly, all of the cool kids played Prince. Now it seems to be more of a racket for recreational players and country clubbers.

I was happy to see a few players using Tecnifibre and Yonex, both of which make fine equipment. Compared to the Babolats and Wilsons of the tennis world, I suppose both of these companies must be content to be niche players. At 6% of the market each at this tournament, that may be right where they want to be.

Stringing at NCAA Division I Championships

2010-05-20T09:42:00.012-04:00

Greetings from the Country Inn and Suites, Athens, Georgia where I am part of the Game.Set.Match Tennis stringing team for the NCAA Division I Championships. There are 32 teams competing here (16 men's 16 women's) and right now we are stringing for 10 of them.

On the men's side, we have lined up Virginia (1), USC (5), Baylor (7), and Duke (16), and have a couple more prospects. On the women's side, Baylor (1), North Carolina (2), Clemson (9), Duke (10), Miami (11), and Florida State (15).

I arrived around noon on Wednesday the 19th. Jay Lewandowski (owner of Game.Set.Match) and Ken Kikongo already had their Babolat Star 5s up and running.

I got mine out of the car and by the time I got it set up the rackets were flooding in, notably with 18 rackets from Virginia (15 Babolat Pure Drives or Pure Drive Roddicks!).

As Jay was running around picking up rackets, Ken and I were grinding away at our machines. By the time we wrapped up at 11:30pm, I had strung 21 rackets (see stringing log below).

In terms of string, of my 20 rackets, only 4 were hybrids and only one had no polyester string in it (female player from UNC). So, 3/4 of the rackets were all-poly. By far the most popular string was Luxilon Big Banger Alu 125. Pacific Poly Force and Babolat Pro Hurricane Tour also were strong, and we saw a little bit of Solinco (showing that their hard work cultivating college customers is paying off some).

In terms of rackets, Babolat was the dominant racket in our stringing room. We saw many Pure Drives, Pure Drive Roddicks, and Pure Drive + in both the regular and Roddick versions. Many European players seem to favor Head frames -- in our case Radicals and Extremes (surprisingly did not see any Prestiges). We did a few Princes, but they have clearly lost market share compared to 20 years ago. For someone who deals in smaller market share brands, I was happy to see a smattering of smaller companies like Yonex and Tecnifibre.

In terms of tensions, mid- to high-50s was the norm, with some players pushing into the low 60s. No one strung in the low 50s much less the 40s. The lowest tension I strung was one Pure Drive Roddick + with Luxilon Alu at 54#. The tightest racket I strung by far was a Prince Tour Diablo with all Pacific Poly Force Xtreme at 68#. My arm hurts just looking at it.

At the end of the day, I was able to look back with satisfaction at the fruits of my labor.

My day 1 stringing log:

UVa Men-

Babolat Pure Drive Roddick, Pacific Poly Force Xtreme/Pacific Power Line @ 59#
Tecnifibre T-Fight 320, Luxilon BB Alu/Pacific Power Line @ 56#
Babolat Pure Drive, Luxilon BB Alu @ 56#
Babolat Pure Drive Roddick +, Luxilon BB Alu @ 56#
Babolat Pure Drive Roddick +, Luxilon BB Alu @ 54#
Head YouTek Radical MP, Luxilon BB Original @ 61#
Head YouTek Radical MP, Luxilon BB Original @ 61#
Babolat Pure Drive Roddick +, Luxilon BB Alu @ 55#
Babolat Pure Drive Roddick +, Luxilon BB Alu @ 55#

Baylor Men -

Head Liquidmetal Radical MP, Luxilon BB Alu @ 27kg/26kg
Head Microgel Radical MP, Pacific Poly Force Xtreme @ 59#
Head Microgel Extreme Pro, Pacific Poly Force Xtreme @ 26kg/25kg
Prince Tour Diablo, Pacific Poly Force Xtreme @ 68#
Prince Tour Diablo, Pacific Poly Force Xtreme @ 68#
Tecnifibre T-Fight 295, Solinco Tour Bite @ 59#
Tecnifibre T-Fight 295, Solinco Tour Bite @ 59#

Misc. Women -

Yonex RQiS 2 Tour, Babolat Pro Hurricane Tour @ 58# (Miami)
Prince 03 Speedport Black LB, Babolat Pro Hurricane/VS Touch @ 65# (Duke)
Prince 03 Speedport Black LB, Babolat Pro Hurricane/VS Touch @ 65# (Duke)
Wilson [K]Six-Two, Wilson NXT Max @ 55# (UNC)
Head Microgel Extreme Pro, Solinco Tour Bite 17g @ 56# (Baylor)

Bag Check - Jan 27 - Wake Forest Men's Tennis

2010-01-27T23:00:00.001-05:00

Wake Forest's men's tennis team is getting ready to head to Lexington, KY this weekend for the National Team Indoors qualifying against Minnesota, and then the winner of Kentucky vs. Michigan.

Wake's team has an exclusive deal to play Pacific strings and the players use seven different Pacific strings in their set-ups.

Here is what the guys will be carrying with them for these matches (tensions are on an electronic constant pull machine; if two strings, the first string listed is main string and second string listed is cross string):

Steven Forman - Head Liquidmetal Prestige MP
Pacific X-Force 18g and Pacific Power Line 16L (62#)

Carlos Salmon - Babolat Pure Drive Roddick
Pacific Poly Force 16L (60#) and Pacific DuraTech 16 (60#)

Jason Morgenstern -Babolat Pure Drive Roddick
Luxilon Big Banger Alu Power 125 (64#)

Iain Atkinson - Babolat Pure Drive Roddick
Pacific Poly Force 16L and Pacific Power Line 16L (58#)

Jon Wolff - Babolat Pure Drive Roddick GT
Pacific Poly Force 16L (59#) and Pacific Poly Power Pro 16L (57#)

David Hopkins - Wilson K6.1 95 (18x20)
Pacific Poly Force 16L and Pacific DuraTech 16 (53#)

Chad Brady - Head Microgel Prestige MP
Pacific Poly Force 16L and Pacific Power Line 16L (53#)

Tripper Carleton - Wilson K6.1 Tour
Pacific Poly Force 16L and Pacific DuraTech (53#)

Danny Kreyman - Tecnifibre T-Fight 320
Pacific Poly Force 17 and Pacific Power Line 16L (45#)

Zach Leslie - Babolat AeroPro Drive GT
Pacific Poly Force 17 (45#)

Amogh Prabakar - Babolat Pure Drive
Pacific Poly Force 16L and Pacific Poly Force 17 (57#)

Conner Sherwood - Babolat Pure Drive
Pacific Poly Force 16L and Pacific Power Line 16L (59#)

Cory Parr Pro Transition Blog #10 - Decisions

2009-12-27T15:29:00.001-05:00

More year-end stats for Cory Parr, plus a new blog entry below.

Cory played 10 tournaments as a professional this year, beginning in June: 8 ITF Futures events and 2 ATP Challenger Tour events. In singles, he won 11 matches and lost 8, earning $2,416 in prize money.

In doubles, he made the semi-finals or better in all 8 Futures events he played, winning 6 of them, earning $2,807 in prize money.

Here is Cory's latest blog entry from GEM Tennis:

Hey everyone. I just got home to New York after a few weeks of traveling to Virginia and Tennessee. My last tournament in Tennessee did not go so well. I had to play my doubles partner Todd in the first round of qualifying. Obviously, just like last time, it was very weird playing your best friend and someone you always travel with. This time however unlike in Mexico, I was able to focus on my game and what I needed to do, and was able to pull out the win 7-5 in the third set. It was not fun playing Todd, but I was happy that I played a pretty good match. In the second round of qualifying, I lost 7-6 in the third set after having a chance to serve out the match being up 5-3 in the third set. It was definitely disappointing not to be able to close out that match, but there are so many matches to be played that I cannot let this one bother me too much. It was a little upsetting of a tournament, but overall, I thought it was a successful trip being able to see that level of tennis on the Challenger tour. Everything is still a learning experience for me, so I am happy to take in as much knowledge and experience everything that I can in order to help me succeed on tour.

This time of the year on tour is the off season. There really are not many tournaments going on, so it is a good time to relax from tennis for a little while, and then start seriously training to get ready for next year. Currently I am debating whether I will be traveling for two tournaments in the Dominican Republic right after thanksgiving. It is going to be a tough decision for me, because one side of me wants to go pick up more points, so that I have a higher ranking starting next year. While the other side of me thinks that I have played enough and it is a good time now to reflect on the year, set new goals for next year, and start training and working on my game. I think a really important thing that I have learned, is that you cannot keep playing tournaments every week. Making sure that you set up a schedule where you get good training in with a coach is really important in the development of your game. Traveling to a lot of tournaments and picking up points is great, but if your not working on and developing your game, then its kind of a waste. There are definitely some important things I need to work on, and it is important that I set aside time to develop and get better.

I have been working with a coach in North Carolina who has really began to help me understand the importance of setting goals, and having a plan to achieve those goals. So from now until the end of the year I will be in the gym a lot to try and put on some weight and work on some things with my game that need to improve in order for me to achieve my goals. Being in New York is also a difficult place to train because of the weather. So in December I am going to Arizona with a few friends on tour to train in some nicer weather. That is all for now.

Stringing at Barclay's ATP World Tour Finals

2009-11-29T22:48:00.004-05:00

Big Time Tennis's Pacific guy, Tom Parry, blogged from London at Tennis Week (http://www.tennisweek.com) during the ATP World Tour Finals. The blog is appropriately titled "Behind the scenes, from behind the machines."

Tom was also interviewed from the stringing room for the official website. http://www.barclaysatpworldtourfinals.com/Tennis/Media/Videos/2009/Barclays-B...

Interesting factoid from the blog and interview: Davydenko stringing the mains one tension (21k initially, the first five crosses another tension, 17k, then the rest of the crosses a third tension, 19k). This may have something to do with the O-ports on his Prince racket starting on the 6th cross down.

Also, check out the post from Day 9 that discusses and shows pictures of Robin Soderling's handle, pictured below.

Cory Parr Pro Transition Blog #9 - Charlottesville Challenger

2009-11-16T09:28:00.004-05:00

Wrapping up his first calendar year of professional tennis, Cory Parr played in his first two Challenger level events, in Charlottesville, Virginia and Knoxville, Tennessee.

Below is a blog entry Cory wrote while in Charlottesville. He and Todd Paul ended up losing to Donald Young and Kevin Anderson (a top-150 doubles player), 6-3, 6-4.

After Charlottesville, it was on to Knoxville. In the first round of singles qualifying in Knoxville, Cory beat his former Wake Forest teammate and doubles partner for the event, Todd Paul (#590), in a very close match: 6-7 (6), 7-6 (3), 7-5. He lost in the second round of qualifying to Sweden's Marcus Sarstrand (who had been ranked as high as #240 in the world in 2005), in another close match, 7-6(1), 3-6, 6-7(5).

Cory and Todd got a wildcard into the doubles main draw in Knoxville, but unfortunately lost to Purav Raja and Somdev Devvarman in the first round.

All-in-all, it was a solid first few months of professional tennis for Cory. He is currently at career high rankings of #822 in singles and #397 in doubles. In a forthcoming blog entry, Cory reflects on some decisions he will be making going into next year.

Here is Cory's Charlottesville blog post from GEM Tennis:

Hey everyone. It’s been a while since my last blog entry. Right now, I’m in Charlottesville, Virginia for a $50,000 Challenger event. This tournament is a step up from what I’ve been competing in the past couple of months. This is a really tough tournament with a lot of great players, including two top 100 world ranked players. I traveled to Virginia with my doubles partner Todd Paul. Since our rankings aren’t high enough we had both had to play the qualifying tournament to get into the main draw of the event. I played three really tough matches to qualify, fighting hard to win all in three sets and even saving a match point in my qualifying match against a tough player from Romania, Catalin Gard. In Challengers, it’s really nice because you gets ATP points when you qualify, as in futures you dont get any points when you qualify and only get 1 point for winning your first round. Also, Todd and I were fortunate to get a Wildcard into the main draw of doubles because of the success we’ve been having together.

In the first round of singles I played Scoville Jenkins. It was a really tough match that I lost 6-1, 5-7, 6-3. It was definitely a huge adjustment playing a guy like Scoville because he hits the ball so hard, and to be honest I was not used to the pace. That really showed in the first set where I lost 6-1. However, in the second set I started getting used to the pace of his ball and I started to feel more comftroable stepping up on the baseline to dictate more. That was a match where I had to focus extremely hard because any opening that you gave him he would step in and take advantage of his opportunity. It was definitely a different match than I am used to playing, but it was good for me to show myself that I am able to play with these guys. So much about playing with these guys is fighting hard and believing that you belong on the court with them. You can really tell the difference being at a challenger than at a future by how these players act both on and off the court. You can just sense this serious confidence that everyone here has about themselves and their tennis. Being here you can tell that these guys are on a mission to do whatever it takes to be successful. I think that this is something that is very good for me to see and understand this early in my career.

In doubles, Todd and I had a really good win taking out the number one seeds Treat Huey and Harsh Mankad. I thought that Todd and I played a really good and solid match. The team that we played has been having a lot of sucess together, winning a few challenger events in the past. This was also a good match for us to see how good we are together as a team. Treat Huey is ranked 160 in the world in doubles and Harsh Mankad is 103. So it is nice to see that we are able to play with and even beat players at this level. Our next doubles match is tonight against Donald Young and Kevin Anderson. Hopefully, we’ll be able to play well and pull out another win. That is all for now.

Cory Parr Pro Transition Blog #8 - Leaving Mexico, Back in the USA

2009-11-02T19:22:00.004-05:00

A posting by Cory on GEM Tennis from October 11th as he was leaving Mexico is below.

Since then, he won the doubles in the USTA Futures event in Austin, Texas with Connor Pollock (his sixth doubles title in eight tournaments as a professional, with three different partners), and recently qualified for the main draw in the $50K USTA Pro Circuit Challenger event in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he plays world #230 Scoville Jenkins in the first round.

Cory and Todd Paul got a wild card into the main draw of the doubles and will face the #1 seeds, Indian doubles specialist Harsh Mankad (world #103) and form Virginia Cavalier Treat Huey (world #168).

From GEM Tennis:

Hi everyone. I’m currently sitting on a bus that is taking me from Monterrey,Mexico to Austin Texas. I think we’re about 30 minutes from the border. This should be pretty interesting!! I’m taking the week off from singles but am going to Austin to play doubles with my friend Connor Pollock who played for Texas A&M. It was a good week for me in Monterrey. Looking back I feel that during this tournament, I played some really good tennis.

After my last post, I had a really good win by beating the number 1 seed Miguel Gallardo 7-6, 6-3. I thought that I played a really solid and a focused match in front of the Mexican fans that were all cheering against me. A few hours after that singles match, Todd and I went on for our semifinal doubles match. It was a really tough match where we had 2 match points but lost 13-11 in the third set tiebreaker. It was a really tough loss, but I think we will be able to use that match and learn from it.

The next day Todd and I had to play each other in the singles semifinals. That was very weird as we are best friends and have never played before in a tournament. We practice everyday together and know one another so well. It was a little weird as we were both staying in the same hotel together and doing everything together. We even warmed up with each other before the match. During the match, we were both playing pretty bad tennis. Todd with his experience gave me a beating 6-2 6-2. It was not fun playing him but it is something that has a great chance of happening as we travel so much together to these tournaments. It was such a mental match, and I think we both had a lot of trouble forgetting who was on the other side of the net.

Anyway I guess the match was a good learning experience as this entire trip was. I’m very happy with my trip to Mexico as I was able to play in a lot of competitive matches and pick up a decent amount of ATP points that should help my ranking in both singles and doubles. It was also a great experience just being out here playing somewhere different. Being in three different cities in three weeks was very cool. I’ve enjoyed my stay.

For now, I’ll be in Texas playing doubles with Connor and will most likely be going to North Carolina to train with my coach there. Hope to start some doubles success with Connor in Austin. That is all for now.

Get an American Express Card - Superior Customer Service

2009-11-01T22:23:00.005-05:00

OK, this isn't really about tennis, but for anyone out there who is in business -- or for anyone who uses a credit card for that matter -- get an American Express card. (BTW, I am not a paid spokesman for the company.)

They have many options that have no annual fee -- I have three: Blue Cash, Blue Sky, and Platinum Business -- and there is no credit card company I have ever dealt with that has better customer service. I am sure there are others out there who have had trouble with Amex, but my experiences have been consistently positive. For example:

-Have you ever accidentally missed a payment then got stuck with a $25-50 late payment fee? I have done this a few times before, and other credit card companies give you a ton of grief about it, and one company even allowed me to cancel my card in order to keep my $25. Both times I've called Amex about this they have reversed the charge without any questions.

-Have you ever had a dispute with a merchant? Two years ago I checked into a hotel on Thursday but they had me scheduled to check in on Wednesday so they charged me for that extra night. When I got home, I went on-line, found the charge, hit the dispute button, and soon enough my account was credited back for that extra night. Amex assumes its cardmembers are right until proven wrong, rather than my having to prove the hotel was wrong.

-Even though it costs a bit more in terms of the service charge (though not the flights themselves), I now book my travel through American Express Travel Services. I was traveling in California last year, and had a flight from San Francisco to San Diego on Southwest connecting to a Delta flight from San Diego to North Carolina. Delta changed my flight so that I would be arriving on Southwest too late to make the connection. One call to Amex Travel Services and they me booked onto a flight that fit my schedule. As hard as it is to fly these days, I appreciated knowing that Amex would take care of me.

-I was motivated to blog about this today because I was linking my Platinum Business card to the Membership Rewards program on-line and got an error message. So, I quickly emailed Amex (from within their website) and got a reply within 24 hours that apologized for the problem and completed the enrollment for me. I responded with thanks and also a suggestion that I had wished the company had been more proactive in letting me know I was eligible for the Membership Rewards program, that they should consider ways of doing this in the future. I had this card for a year and only recently realized I could enroll so was disappointed to lose out on a year's worth of rewards points.

The response I got was astonishing to me. I thought it would just be a note of thanks for the suggestion, but this is what I got instead:

Hello David Yamane,

Thank you for your follow up email.

You are welcome!

I am sorry that you missed out on points due to this error. Please be advised that I have made an exception to issue 20,265 retroactive points to your program account on 11/01/2009 and this adjustment covers your 11/2008-10/2009 statements. Your current available balance is 20,265 points.

Please let us know if we can help you in any other way.
Sincerely,

Sonya Robinson
Email Servicing Team
American Express Interactive Services

Cory Parr Pro Transition Blog #7 - Mexico, Part 2

2009-10-10T14:45:00.002-04:00

A second posting by Cory on GEM Tennis from Mexico, October 9th:

Hi everyone. I’m still in Monterrey Mexico for my last tournament of the trip. It has been a pretty good tournament so far. Yesterday I won my first round in singles after saving a match point in the second set. It was a really tough match against a good player from Holland who was playing with a lot of confidence after last weeks tournament where he reached the finals. It’s definitely a good confidence booster for the upcomming rounds to win a tough 3 set match where we were on the court for three and a half hours.
Earlier today, in the next round, I beat the 6th seed from Argentina Maximilia Estevez. It was a pretty good match where I thought I played pretty well. Tomorrow in the quarterfinals I play the number 1 seed who I lost to last week. I know it will be a really tough match, but I hope to be able to learn from my previous match against him and use that to my advantage.

In doubles, Todd Paul and I have also been playing well. We have won our first few rounds and are now in the semifinals. The weather here in Monterrey has been really hot and humid. I feel like everytime we walk outside we start to sweat. Todd and I are always drinking a ton of water and gatorade to make sure that we stay hydrated. The last thing that we want out here is to be on the court in a long match and start to cramp because we haven’t been drinking enough.

So far I have been traveling and playing tournaments for about 3 months. It seems that on every trip I learn so much more about myself and what I need to do. This trip I’ve learned so much about the importance of taking care of myself. I know that sounds really simple, but trust me from experience, it’s really easy ignore subtle pains and be too lazy to take care of it. During this trip I probably spend a couple of hours a day icing, stretching, taping my body, and even sometimes getting massages. When your out on the road for a few weeks, especially not in the best of conditions, your body tends to break down a little. Whether you are a little sick, and/or sore from playing a lot, you really need to focus on that and make sure you go about getting better as soon as possible. It’s crazy how one little sore shoulder or elbow can lead to something really serious to the point where you cannot compete in these tournaments anymore. I’m saying this as I have ice on my ankle from when I rolled in last week. Anyway, tomorrow will be a long and tough day with singles and doubles. I hope to continue playing well. That’s all for now!

Cory Parr Pro Transition Blog #6 - Mexico

2009-10-10T14:29:00.002-04:00

The following wsa posted by Cory on GEM Tennis on October 6th:

Hi everyone. Right now, I’m sitting in my hotel room in Monterrey Mexico. I came over here to Mexico with my doubles partner Todd Paul. Todd and I have been doing very well together, so we figured we would travel together over here to try and continue our success. This is our third and final week here in Mexico. This is the first time in my tennis career that I have competed in professional tournaments outside of the country. Overall it has been a great experience. I have learned a lot from being out here and I’ve had some success picking up some ATP points in both singles and doubles to help boost up my ranking. At these tournaments, picking up ATP points is what everyone is after, not the money. The money is pretty bad. The more points you accumulate, the higher your ranking gets. The idea is to grind through these futures events to help build up your ranking to get into challenger events, and then the ultimate goal, to get into ATP events.

My first week in Mexico was in a city named Leon. Leon is a pretty nice city, however it was almost impossible to find someone in Leon that spoke any english. Thanks to Leon, my Spanish had to improve tramendously. One thing that was very different about playing in Leon was the altitude. Playing in altitude is very different than playing in normal conditions that I am used to. In Leon, we were about 5,000 feet above sea level. Playing in that type of altitude makes the balls fly through the air a lot quicker. I had to string my racquet 5 pounds tighter than normal. I made that adjustment, because a lot of my shots were landing deep out of the court with my normal tension. It took a few days to get used to the conditions, but getting to Leon 3 days before the tournament started gave us a chance to get a lot of practice sessions in. In Leon, I was able to qualify for the main draw by winning 2 qualifying matches. I then faced a Mexican named Antonio Rouiz. Because Antonio is one of the better Mexican players, I played the night match on the clubs stadium court. It was a good experience for me, playing in front of a bunch of Mexican fans that were all cheering against me. I was fortunate to win my first round in 3 sets. My second round on the other hand I fell to the number 6 seed 7-5 in the third set. In doubles, Todd and I had continued our success together by reaching the semifinals, but losing a tough 3 set match. This ended our 4 tournament professional circuit unbeaten streak together. It was a little upsetting, but we were definitely due for a loss. We knew that we needed to learn from the match and use it to get us better.

After being in Leon, we then took a four and a half hour bus ride, to the next tournament city, Zacatacus. This bus we went on was unbelievable. I would have never thought that traveling on a bus through Mexico would have been so nice. I felt like I was sitting first class on an airplane. This bus had reclining chairs that made me feel like I was in bed, and the bus also had wireless internet. Definitely not what I was expecting. I did not have much time to get used to the new city that I was in because since we were still in doubles so late in Leon, qualifying for the next tournament started the next day after I arrived in Zacatacus. I did a little better at this tournament. In singles, I won 2 rounds to qualify and and then reached the quarterfinals of the main draw. In doubles, Todd and I started playing a little better together than the previous week as we won the tournament. This tournament was more of a success as I was able to pick up more singles and doubles points than I did in Leon the week before.

Because I was at the tournament the last day in Zacatacus, due to the doubles final, I had to take a bus with Todd that went through the night in order to get to Monterrey. We took the same amazing ETN bus as we did last week, but we left left Zacatacus at midnight, and then arrived in Monterrey at 7 AM. Not a fun night, but since my singles ranking is not high enough to be directly accepted into the main draw of singles, I had to make it to qualifying. So, I arrived in Monterrey at 7 AM and had to play my first qualifying match at noon. Was not a fun day, but this is part of the grind. I am very happy to say that I was able to get through it with a win. Today I won my final qualifying singles match. I play in the main draw on Wednesday against a guy from Holland named Millian Niestan. Hopefully I will be able to end my trip to Mexico on a good note picking up some more ATP points. That is all for now.

Nice Visual on String Deflections

2009-09-22T00:04:00.002-04:00

I guess I have this chart buried too deep in the Big Time Tennis webpage because I even forgot I had it there (you need to look at the sidebar on the Supplemental String Information page).

This PDF flier was put together by Tom Parry at Pacific (our main string supplier and sponsor of Wake Forest Men's Tennis). It visually represents the effect of various string types (from natural gut to polyester monofilaments) on a tennis ball being struck and how they affect playability.

I can't explain it in words any better than the graphics do, so check it out and let us know what you think.

Top-Selling Tennis Equipment

2009-09-14T10:33:00.002-04:00

According to TIA/Sports Marketing Surveys data reported in Racquet Sports Industry magazine (September/October 2009):

TOP-SELLING RACQUETS AT SPECIALTY STORES
(Year-to-date dollars, January-June 2009)

1. Babolat Aeropro Drive Cortex
2. Babolat Pure Drive Cortex
3. Prince EXO3 Red
4. Wilson K Blade
5. Prince 03 Speedport Black

TOP-SELLING TENNIS STRINGS AT SPECIALTY STORES
(Year-to-date dollars, January-June 2009)

1. Prince Synthetic Gut Duraflex
2. Wilson NXT
3. Wilson Sensation
4. Prince Lightening XX
5. Luxilon Alu Power

Cory Parr Pro Transition Blog #5 - Summer Recap

2009-08-26T08:33:00.004-04:00

The following was posted by Cory on GEM Tennis on August 13th:

Hi everyone. I know it has been a while but I have not always had an internet connection in the places I have been. Right now I am at Wake Forest University. I am relaxing here for a few days visiting my girlfriend and practicing. It has been a pretty good summer. I’ve been on the road 5 out of the last 6 weeks. My first tournament started off in Rochester, then the next week was Pittsburgh, then Joplin Missouri, Godfrey Illinois, and finally, Decatur Illinois.

My last post came during my last night in Joplin. After Joplin, my doubles partner Todd and his coach Gwinyai drove 4 hours to Godfrey Illinois. Godfrey again was a successful tournament in doubles for Todd and I as we won the tournament. Not bad going back to back weeks with doubles wins. In singles on the other hand I lost a tough match in the first round 7-6, 6-3. It was a tough match that I definitely thought I could have won, but just did not convert on the big points to come out on top. I’m hoping that I use all of these matches, whether I win or lose, as learning experiences that will help me in the future. If there is one thing I have learned about these tough losses, it is that you cannot dwell on them because there is a tournament the next week and you have to start focusing and gearing up toward that next week. During these tournaments you see guys who have been losing first round week after week, and then all of a sudden they get to the semis or finals a few weeks later. Tennis is just a bizzare sport like that where things just fall in place and good things happen if you have the right mentality and keep working hard. Tennis is also a huge confidence game where you can tell which players that you are watching are playing with confidence and which players are not.

After Godfrey, for our final week we drove an hour and a half to Decatur Illinois. Todd and I had another great run together in doubles as we won the tournament for a third straight week. Todd and I are pretty happy with our three weeks of work together in doubles going 12-0. Sinlges was a better week for me. In the first round, I drew the 4^th seed who was the same opponent (Matej Bocko) whom I lost to in Joplin 2 weeks earlier. I guess I ended up learning a little from my previous loss winning 6-2, 6-3, after losing 6-4, 6-2 last time. In the second round I also played a guy who I have also lost to previously at the NCAA sweet 16 against Baylor in college. This time I also got a little revenge winning the match 6-4, 6-3, after previously losing 6-2, 6-2 a few months earlier. In the quarterfinals I ended up losing to Arnau Brugues from Spain 6-4, 6-1, who eventually won the tournament. I felt that I had my chances in the first set however he took it to another level in the second set and I was not playing well enough to match it.

All in all, I am pretty happy with the way the three weeks have went. I’m especially happy with the way doubles has gone winning all of the tournaments that I have played this summer. More importantly, I have learned so much traveling and being at these tournaments every week. There are so many good players out here trying to make it playing tennis. You can really see that the players who are focused and working hard are the ones that are seeing the better results. That is really important for me to see as this is still a learning process for me at the start of my professional career . I hope to use these past few weeks as motivation in my training to do everything that I can possibly do make it on tour.

For my next tournament I am going to sign into the qualifying for the ATP tournament in New Haven. I’ll also try and get a wildcard into doubles with Todd at the tournament. That is all for now. Thanks for your support!

Cory Parr Pro Transition Blog - Re-Located

2009-08-26T08:27:00.003-04:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that Cory Parr has been posting his most recent blogs on another site, which provides him a different sort of platform than the Big Time! Tennis blog.

I will be reproducing Cory's GEM Tennis blogs here, but to see the original postings, go to GEM Tennis at http://www.gemtennis.com.

Cory Parr Pro Transition Blog #4 - Changing Equipment

2009-07-22T13:26:00.001-04:00

Hey, everyone. I'm in Joplin, Missouri for the $10K Futures event here this week. I'm excited to be here because I've been off for a couple of weeks. My tournament in Pittsburgh ended quickly, since I didn't play the doubles and lost in the first round of the singles to Blake Strode. I got a wildcard into the main draw for singles and am playing doubles with my old teammate Todd Paul. Last year, my Wake Forest doubles partner Steve Forman and I won the doubles, so hopefully I can repeat with a new partner.

While I'm here, I thought I would talk a little bit about changing equipment. About a month before the end of my college season, my assistant coach at Wake Forest Chris Brandi convinced me that to be effective on the pro tour I would need to change rackets. Since I was 12 years old, I have used the oversize Head Radical. I can't even remember what all models I used, but I just got the new model each time it came out -- the Intelligence, the Flexpoint, and the Microgel. So I am really comfortable with that racket. With the oversize head (107 square inches) I feel like I really serve and return well. But coach thought my groundstrokes and volleys could be better with a smaller head size, especially playing against more pace and spin on tour.

So, I started trying different midplus rackets: Babolat Pure Drive, Pure Drive Roddick, AeroPro Drive, and AeroStorm, Yonex RDiS 300 and RQiS 2 Tour, and Head MicroGel Radical Pro and Microgel Extreme. All of these rackets did some things well, but none of them felt quite right across all the strokes. Then when I was home in New York for a weekend, my coach gave me demos of the new Head YouTek Radicals, the Midplus and the Pro. They were just being released during Wimbledon and I couldn't even get one in North Carolina.

I liked the rackets because they had the same basic feel as the other Radicals I used but also allowed me to spin the ball more and absorb pace, while the oversize was kind of like a backboard and my ball would come back really flat against a heavy ball.

I had to choose between the Midplus and the Pro, though. They both did certain things well. I asked my coach in New York what he thought and he said these are the most important things: (1) serve, (2) return, and (3) groundstrokes. He told me I was never going to be John McEnroe so how the racket volleyed was less important. Looking at those three strokes, the YouTek Radical Pro turned out to be the better of the two for me. It's about an ounce heavier than my Microgel Radical OS plus it has a more open string pattern (16x19 compared to 18x20), so it is quite a bit different from what I am used to. But I think it is alot better for the pro game.

That's all for now.

-CP

Thanks to Colette Lewis and Zoo Tennis

2009-07-09T09:33:00.003-04:00

Big thanks to Colette Lewis at Zoo Tennis for mentioning Cory Parr's pro transition blog in her post today.

If you have any questions for Cory or topics you'd like him to cover, please send in a comment to the Big Time Tennis blog.

You can pick up the blog feed also at the Big Time Tennis Facebook page or link to it from our website. We'll also tweet when new posts are available @bigtimetennis.

Cory Parr Pro Transition Blog #3 - Rochester Wrap Up and Pittsburgh Futures

2009-07-08T09:33:00.001-04:00

Hey, everyone. I just wrapped up my first event as a professional Sunday. It went pretty well.

I the singles, I won a round then lost to Vasilis Mazarakis of Greece pretty badly, 4 and 0. He played well but I could have played alot better. I had my chances in the first set but just didn't come through. In the end, he smoked alot of people on the way to the title (won the final 2 and 0). I'm not sure about his whole tennis situation, but I read on Zoo Tennis that in 2005 he was ranked 115 in the world.

Marcus Fugate and I ended up winning the doubles on Sunday, 2-6, 6-4, 10-8 over my buddy from New York Bryan Koniecko and Chase Buchanan (Ohio State). We were actually down a set and 0-2/15-40 on our serve in the second. At that point, we realized that if we lost the next point, we were probably done, down a set and two breaks. So, we started focusing more and taking time to strategize each point. We realized that we were doing exactly what they wanted us to do, so we had to change it up by playing more aggressive, coming to net more, and playing away from their strengths.

At the end of the tournamnet, I had my first paychecks as a professional: $200 (and 1 ATP ranking point) for winning a round in the singles, and $315 for winning the doubles (Marcus and I split $630).

On to Pittsburgh this week. Monday morning I played in the final round of qualifying for the Pittsburgh Futures event and beat Viju George (2 and 3) to get into the main draw. Even though I just wrapped up the Rochester event on Sunday, I had already won two rounds in qualifying before I played on Monday. On Friday night I rode 5 hours from Rochester with Tony Bresky and a bunch of the college team guys to Pittsburgh to play Taylor Fogleman (UNC) on Saturday morning in the first round of qualifying. I won that match and was supposed to play Brennan Boyajian (also from UNC) Sunday, but I had the Rochester doubles final at noon on Sunday, so we both agreed to play our second round qualifying match Saturday. I beat Boyajian then rented a car and drove right back to Rochester. I got back to Marcus's house at 9:30pm Saturday night. After the doubles final on Sunday, I got right back into that rental car and drove (with Jean-Yves Aubone) 5 hours back to Pittsburgh!

The funny thing is that I just missed getting a direct acceptance into the main draw of Pittsburgh. Austin Krajicek was the last person accepted based on ranking and I would have been next after him. That would have saved me two round trip drives from Rochester to Pittsburgh as well as three qualifying matches. It's a big difference between a direct acceptance and having to qualify to get into the main draw. Hopefully I can keep earning points to improve my ranking and get more direct acceptances and just leave qualifying for the higher level tournaments.

Anyway, I'm here in Pittsburgh now and I play in the first round today against Blake Strode (U. of Arkansas), who got into the main draw as a "lucky loser." The funny thing is, we're rooming here together and before the draw came out we were joking about drawing each other in the first round. Sure enough, we were sitting together in our hotel room when the draw came out and just had to laugh when we saw it.

I think you can tell already that there is alot of work that goes into playing these events. We're not flying NetJets between events, having meals prepared by our private chefs, or being chauffered around from our luxury hotels to the clubs. One of the nice things, though, is that there are alot of people associated with the tournaments we play who really want to help us succeed as professionals. At the club yesterday a woman came up to me and asked me if I needed housing. I definitely did, but I didn't want to leave Blake behind at the hotel and told her that, but she said we could both stay at her house. So, Blake and I are sleeping in her basement. She's been great -- we had a BBQ for dinner last night and she provided breakfast for us this morning. We're playing for such little money out here that saving on hotel and food is really helpful.

Only one bad note this week: Marcus Fugate and I won't be playing in the doubles here because we forgot to sign in when we got to the tournament! Things were so rushed because I just drove in from Rochester on Sunday night and I was playing my last qualifying match at 10am on Monday. I just missed the Monday noon entry deadline for doubles. I won't be making that mistake again soon.

I'll let you know how things go in the singles this week when I can.

--CP

Cory Parr Pro Transition Blog #2 - Rochester $10K Futures Event

2009-07-01T22:49:00.002-04:00

Hi, everyone. I'm in Rochester, NY this week at the USTA Pro Circuit Linda Bogdan Memorial Futures $10K tournament.

One of the perks of being on the USTA Collegiate Summer Team is the chance to get wild cards into the main draw of some of the USTA Pro Circuit events this summer. I got one for this week, which is cool because in 2007 my former Wake Forest teammate Todd Paul and I won the doubles here.

I'm really excited to be playing in my first event as a professional, but I also had quite a few things to take care of before I left Winston-Salem. I graduated in May, but I still had a German Lit course to take so I was in summer school, five days a week for all of June. I actually had to miss a few days of class for the Pro Transition camp last week and was nervous about telling the professor, but she was cool about it. She said, "I guess it's like going on a job interview," which it sort of is.

I also had to ask to take my final exam a day early so I could fly to Rochester on Monday. I spent all weekend packing up my room, studying for my German Lit exam, and spending some time with people at Wake. I was also trying to get my rackets and strings right because I'm changing both (more on that in another blog). So it was a busy weekend. On Monday, I went to class, took my final, grabbed my bags, and headed to the airport. I got in to Rochester around 9pm that night, finally done with school. That four years went by FAST.

Right now I'm staying with the family of my doubles partner Marcus Fugate, who grew up in Rochester. We are the #3 seeds, and because he is a well-known local player we will be playing our doubles matches at night on the stadium court. In our first match we played Steve Johnson (from USC) and Bradley Klahn (from Stanford) and won 6-4, 7-6. I was actually serving at 4-5 and love-40 in the second set and we managed to pull it out. In the second round tonight we played a couple of other guys I know really well from juniors and college, Reid Carleton from Duke and Austin Krajicek from Texas A&M. There are a lot of college guys out here in the summer time so that makes the tournament situation feel more comfortable, more familiar. Anyway, it was a good, tough match like I was expecting, and Marcus and I pulled it out 6-3, 5-7, 1-0 (10-7). We were actually down 6-4 in the match breaker, and won 6 of the next 7 points. Felt good about that. Tomorrow we play in the semi-finals.

In singles, I drew the #2 seed, Michael Quintero from Colombia, who is #438 in the ATP rankings. Tough draw. He's been as high as 250 in the world. But as the match got going I knew I could beat him because I was up 4-3 and 40-15 serving in first before I ended up losing it. When I got down a set and 3-1, I just tried to play a little more aggressive, taking the ball earlier because I could see that I wasn't going to be able to wear him out. I ended up winning 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.

In each of my three matches I have had moments when I was behind and ended up coming back, even when I have a blister on my foot, rash on my legs, and a stiff back. I think this reflects my new attitude toward tennis. I know in every match I have to dig deep because this is it for me -- this is my job, this is what I do for a living. I am playing for a paycheck.

As my college career was wrapping up and I was thinking about becoming a pro I realized that it is not just about playing your match on the court that matters. Its the stuff that you do before and after the matches that make the difference. For example, after my tough three set match today, the old me would have finished the match and sat down right after and had lunch. The new me knew I had to be a professional, so I hogged for a mile after the match and stretched out for a good while after that. I know that helped me with my doubles match tonight and will help me in my singles and doubles tomorrow.

OK, it's late and I have to get some rest. Hopefully I'll have more good news tomorrow.

-CP

Cory Parr Pro Transition Blog, Entry #1: Pro Transition Camp

2009-06-28T22:09:00.000-04:00

Hi, everyone. This is the first time I've ever done a blog, and honestly it is a bit embarrassing for me to do this because I don't ever really like calling alot of attention to myself. It seems cocky, but hopefully I can say some things that people will find interesting about becoming a professional tennis player.

I just got back from spending last weekend in Boca Raton, FL at USTA National Training Center for the USTA's Pro Transition Camp. I got invited to do this as part of the USTA Summer College team. There were 12 guys down there, all really good players, along with our coaches Chris Brandi (from Wake Forest) and Tony Bresky (from Virginia). You can see a picture of us all below.

This is the first time the USTA has held one of these camps, and I was impressed at how much thought the coaches had put into what we were doing that weekend. Every aspect of the drills, the play, the workouts, and the meetings was completely thought out ahead of time. The four days we were there we got so much done because of that.

Jay Berger, USTA National Coach for Men's Tennis, headed the camp, and he had a very clear vision for what he wanted to accomplish. Berger had spent some time on the practice court with Rafael Nadal at the French Open this year and his vision for the camp seemed to come from that. He told us how hard Nadal practices, hitting for an hour and half all out with only two short breaks. Players like Nadal have revolutionized tennis in terms of being physically demanding. You have to work hard because the game has gotten extremely physical. People are beasts out there. I will always remember what Berger told us: If you work your hardest and do everything right, you work hard every day, training and lifting and hitting, you MAY make it (no guarantees!). But if you don't put the work in every day, you have no chance.

Because we were so busy everything is kind of a blur, but our days basically were to wake up and eat, then do a couple of hours of fitness in the early morning followed by fed and tossed ball drills for a couple of hours. Alot of us hadn't done any tossed ball drills for a long time. That's like what you see when kids are just learning to play. Even though it seems basic, this showed that having a strong foundation is vital when every small bit can be the difference between winning and losing. Everybody on tour seems like they have pretty good strokes, so a little bit better footwork or a little bit better fitness can make a big difference in the end.

After a day or so we started playing more live ball drills and sets where we had to do specific things like play the first two balls cross-court or only hit second serves. This really showed me the importance of practicing with a purpose, trying to do specific things, and recreating playing situations in practice, rather than just banging balls for a long time.

On the first day of training, Connor Pollock (from Texas A&M), Bradley Klahn (from Stanford), and I had the bad luck of getting put on Jay Berger's court. He worked us harder than anyone the whole weekend. It couldn't get harder than that.

Berger was helped on court by Hugo Armando and Leo Azevedo. Both are South American clay court specialists, that I think are part of Jose Higueres's team. You probably know that the USTA has hired Higueres to help American players learn how to play better on clay, and to take the lessons from that and use them on other surfaces, too.

I will never forget the head fitness guy, Satoshi Ochi. A little Japanese guy (on the far left in the picture above) who ran the crap out of us every day. Not so much running sprints but doing tennis specific footwork drills that were burning, just absolutely killing our legs.

Off the court I roomed with Connor Pollock, which was cool. I knew he from juniors and we also had alot in common because he also just graduated from college. We stayed at a Hilton hotel near the facility, which would have been nice if we weren't so tired every day when we got back there. I crashed out around 9pm most nights.

That's all I have for now. I'm getting ready to fly to Rochester for a Futures event next week. I'll write about that when I get a chance.

-CP

Tournament Stringing Log from French Open

2009-06-28T09:06:00.000-04:00

Paul Kid of Tecnifibre reports the following stringing information from Roland Garros, where Tecnifibre is the official stringer, in the July 2009 issue of Racquet Sports Industry magazine:

-Total frames strung: 3,060 (up by 300 from 2008)
-Lowest tension: 22# for Filipo Volandri (Italy)
-Highest tension: 77# for Jurgen Melzer (Austria)
-Most racquets strung: 52 for Serena Williams

Tensions for notable players:
-Rafael Nadal: 55#
-Robin Soderling: 56#
-Dinara Safina: 66/64#
-Svetlana Kuznetsova: 57/55#
-Fernando Verdasco: 51/46#
-Mike Bryan: 50/53#
-Bob Bryan: 49/53#
-Andy Roddick: 62#
-John McEnroe: 52#

Notable to me is -- with a couple of exceptions -- how low these professionals string compared to the average college and amateur players I've strung for. I've posted about this before in examining pro stringing logs.

Tennis Professional Cory Parr to Blog on "Big Time! Tennis"

2009-06-24T15:31:00.000-04:00

Cory Parr graduated from Wake Forest University in May 2009, and is embarking this summer on his professional tennis career. It is not in his nature to talk about himself, but I convinced him that blogging about his experiences would be a good way for his friends and family to keep up with him. Also, I know my 14 year old son and others interested in junior, college, and professional tennis are curious about the process of becoming a touring pro.

In additional to writing about his experiences, Cory is happy to try to answer questions posed to him by readers.

A bit of background about Cory before his first entry. His four years on the Wake Forest tennis team were among the most successful in the program's history and his individual record is unmatched. Highlights include:

-Team made two trips to the NCAA tournament sweet sixteen (2007, 2009)
-First time team reached the final of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) tennis tournament (2009)
-First ever national title: 2008 ITA National Indoor Doubles Champions (Parr and Steven Forman)
-Singles All-American (2009) and twice doubles All-American (with Forman, 2008, 2009)
-Three times All-ACC selection (2007-2009)
-ITA Player of the Year for the Mideast Region (2009)
-All time leader in singles and doubles win in Wake Forest program history
-Read more about Cory's Wake Forest career on the Wake Forest sports site.

Upon graduating, Cory was one of 12 men named to the 2009 USTA Summer Collegiate Team
(Wake Forest assistant Chris Brandi is one of the coaches), and is currently in Boca Raton, FL at the USTA Pro Tour transition camp with members of the team.

For future reference, you can follow his progress on his ATP World Tour player page

Pro Tournament Stringing Logs - Aegon International Eastbourne

2009-06-24T11:09:00.000-04:00

Stringing logs from the finals of the Aegon International grass event at Eastbourne, posted by stringing team manager Liam Nolan on Grand Slam Stringers message boards:

Women's Singles:
Virginie Razzano (France) - Head Prestige - Vs one-piece RTW @ 25.5k
Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) - Babolat Aero - Mains Babolat Red, Crosses VS @ 25k.

Men's singles;
Frank Dancevic (Canada) - Wilson K Blade - Mains Big Banger Alu Pwr, Crosses VS @ 18k.
Dmitri Tursunov - Wilson K Blade - mains are Big Banger Ace 112 and Alu Pwr crosses @ 49lbs.

Ladies Doubles;
Samantha Stosur (Aus) - Bab Pure Storm - mains Big Banger Alu Pwr @ 62lbs, crosses VS with pre-stretch @ 53lbs.
Rennae Stubbs (Aus) - Bab Pure Storm - mains are VS with pre-stretch, crosses Bab Red @ 56lbs.

Their opponents;
Akgul Amanmuradova (Uzb) - Bab Pure Drive - Pro Hurr one-piece @ 28/27k
Ai Sugiyama (JPN) - Prince O3, mains Recoil @ 50lbs, crosses Prince gut - pre-stretch @ 52lbs.

Not surprisingly, alot of Luxilon and Babolat VS gut hybrids. Interesting to see some of the Babolat players using the red "Revenge" string. Haven't seen or heard much about it, but I'm sure it will be big with the Babolat name behind it.

Building up and reshaping a Prince grip

2009-06-14T17:48:00.000-04:00

Twice this year I have had customers come to me with Prince rackets they had bought with 1/8 inch grips and had built up to 3/8 inch grips using heat-shrink sleeves. Problem was, the SHAPE of the grip was not right. Why?

In order to make a grip so small, the handle of the racket is flatter than a typical Prince grip. It feels more like a rectangular Head or Volkl grip than the rounder Prince or Babolat.

You can see this by looking at the shape of the 1/8 inch buttcap on the right compared to the 3/8 inch buttcap on the left.

So, at the same time the handle needed to be built up two sizes, it also needed to be reshaped to feel like a typical Prince. This cannot be done simply by putting two heat shrink sleeves over the handle and buttcap. The old buttcap would have to be removed, the handle built up and reshaped, then a new, properly sized buttcap installed before regripping.

I began by taking a Prince racket with a 3/8 inch grip size I had in the shop and measuring the diameter of the handle using my calipers. (Ideally I would have had the player's other racket for this measurement, but he was out of town.) I recorded the dimensions of this Prince 3/8 inch handle as a reference point.

To get from 1/8 inch to 3/8 inch grip size, I had to build the handle up TWO sizes. I and most people I know do not recommend using heat shrink sleeves to do this because the bevels on the handle tend to lose definition with two sleeves-- the edges are too rounded off. But I stock some sleeves that I get from Grand Slam Stringers which I think are slightly thicker than a standard full size sleeve. So, using one of the GSS sleeves plus strips cut from another GSS sleeve, I thought I could get very close to the correct dimensions for a 3/8 inch handle.

I used two sided tape on the side of the handle that I wanted to build up, and laid down the strip I had cut to fit that section on top of the tape. It fit nicely and securely in its place.

Then I measured all four diameters of the newly built up handle to compare it to the reference handle. All measurements were between 0.007 to 0.023 inch from the reference handle, which was within my margin of comfort/error.

One way I knew that the handle shape was as it should be for a 3/8 inch Prince was that the 3/8 inch buttcap fit on snugly but I did not have to force it on.

I stapled the new buttcap on and used a small hammer to make sure the staples were flush.

Here is the newly built up and reshaped handle with the proper size buttcap on it, ready to be gripped.

The owner of the racket asked me to reuse the old grip, which had been taken off twice already (once for the initial buildup and once when I took it off). I ordinarily would press hard for a new grip to go with this work, but to save money and because he always uses an overgrip, the owner asked me to re-use the original grip again.

I stapled the end of the grip to the buttcap, wrapped some two-sided tape around the buttcap and handle (I always wrap the two-sided tape in the opposite direction of the grip), and applied the grip.

This job was simple to plan out, but like most customization jobs it took time, patience, and caution to properly execute the plan. In the end it paid off becuase my customer and I were very satisfied with the result.

If you have any questions or comments about this posting, please be in touch.

String Tensions Generally Too High?

2009-05-08T13:43:00.000-04:00

A fellow stringer, LoneStar Stringing Co., was stringing at the BMW Tennis Championships this spring and made the following observation:

Our average tension so far has been 49lbs, with only 1 player not using Gut or Poly(Phau). Its amazing to see that Americans typically are stringing their racquets 5-6lbs higher than others. What does that tell us?

To me, alot of people string too tight. Because most people -- from hackers like me to the more proficient college players I string for -- worry most about controlling the ball, they naturally go up in tension seeking that control. But there are so many trade-offs to that, including touch/feel and also the arm problems associated with high string tensions.

But how do you get people to experiment with this? Sometimes by accident. One of our players used to string at 65# with all poly. I gradually worked him down to 60# all poly. One day, he grabbed the wrong racket and was playing with it when I walked up. He said, "This racket feels really good. It feels tighter." I grabbed the racket to look at the sticker to see what it was strung at when I noticed he had the wrong racket. It was strung with poly mains and synthetic gut crosses at 55#. Much softer stringbed, but felt better to him so that's what he uses now. Started the year all poly at 65# and ended it with a hybrid at 55#.

Moral of the story? Get low!

Wake Forest Players/Rackets/Stringing

2009-05-08T10:26:00.000-04:00

Easily the most common question I am asked about my work is about the rackets/strings/tensions used by the Wake Forest University men's team members. So, here it is:

Iain Atkinson - Babolat Pure Drive Roddick - Mains: Pacific Poly Force 1.29mm/16L @ 59#, Crosses: Pacific Power Line 1.28mm/16L @ 59#

Andrew Brasseaux - Babolat Pure Drive Roddick - Mains: Pacific Poly Force 1.29mm/16L @ 55.5#, Crosses: Pacific Poly Force 1.24mm/17 @ 53.5#

Steve Forman - Head Microgel Prestige MP - Mains: Pacific X-Force 1.17mm/18g @ 62#, Crosses: Pacific Power Line 1.28mm/16L @ 62#

David Hopkins - Wilson K6.1 95 (18x20) - Mains: Pacific Poly Force 1.29mm/16L @53#, Crosses: Pacific Dura Tech 1.32mm/16 @ 53#

Jason Morgenstern - Wilson K6.1 95 (16x18) - Mains and Crosses: Luxilon Big Banger Alu Power 1.25mm @ 64# (one-piece, ATW)

Cory Parr - Head Microgel Radical OS - Mains: Tecnifibre Pro Red Code 1.30mm/16 @ 59#, Crosses: Tecnifibre NRG2 1.32mm/16 @ 59#

Carlos Salmon - Babolat Pure Drive Roddick - Mains: Pacific Poly Force 1.29mm/16L @ 55#, Crosses: Pacific Dura Tech 1.32mm/16 @ 55#

Joost Vogel - Wilson K6.1 95 (18x20) - Mains: Pacific Poly Force 1.29mm/16L @ 24kg, Crosses: Pacific Syntec 1.33mm/16 @ 24kg

Jon Wolff - Babolat Pure Drive Roddick - Mains: Babolat Pro Hurricane Tour 1.30mm/16 @ 55.5#, Crosses: Pacific Poly Force 1.24mm/17 @ 53.5#