ERSA PRO STRINGER ISSUE 6-2018 prostringer6-18 web | Page 19

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WIMBLEDON
WIMBLEDON STRINGING
SERVICE 2018
2018 was the tenth year that Apollo Leisure has run the official on site racket stringing service at the
Championships. And it was a year in which record numbers of rackets were strung. In fact since we started the
service in 2009 restring numbers have almost doubled.
The Qualifying competition started at the Bank of England Ground, Roehampton on Saturday 23 rd June and
we had 8 stringers, 3 front desk staff and 2 runners. We were very busy on the Sunday and Monday as players
prepared for their first matches and we saw a 40% increase in rackets on 2017. The main site at Wimbledon
was also busy from the Monday with players arriving earlier to practice on the grass. This year we were again
working in partnership with Babolat and they kindly supplied us with 14 Racket Stations that had previously
been used at Roland Garros. We also had the services of their head machine technician, Eric Ferrazzi, for
the first 5 days of the Championship to ensure the machines operated smoothly. The fine weather certainly
helped to increase the numbers and ensured the Qualifying Tournament was completed on time.
And so to the Championships. We had by the Sunday built the team up to 15 stringers, 4 front desk staff and
3 runners in readiness for the onslaught. Our team being assembled from the UK and all over Europe. As in
previous years Sunday and Monday were our heaviest days with a 5% increase in rackets dropped off over
the 2 days. With the hot weather we saw quite a lot of changes in tension, mostly going higher for control. The
number of ‘on courts’ also increased this year with over 100 rackets taken to court by our enthusiastic runners.
As ever the team worked exceptionally hard over long hours to get the workload completed accurately and
on time. We are proud to have built our team into the best Grand Slam stringing service in the world using
the top stringers in the UK and Europe and having the smoothest front desk operation. At the end of the
Championships we had strung 4503 rackets, a 12% increase, and used approximately 33.5 miles of string.
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ERSA PRO STRINGER // ISSUE 6-2018