RacquetTech Issue 1 - 2017 RacquetTech Issue 1 - 2017 | Page 24

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AusOpen 2017

The 2017 Australian Open will be remembered for the great tennis and the resurgance of the top players from 10 years ago . All the single fi nalists were over 30 years old , along with the Bryan brothers in the doubles fi nal . The YONEX stringing team made a record for the second straight year there in a row for the most rackets ever strung in a tournament . 5460 , beating the record set last January of 5297 . There were also 2 days in a row with over 500 rackets strung . I do not believe that ever happened before in a tournament . The team was made up of stringers from around the world . USA , Canada , Brazil , Japan , Korea , Taiwan , China , Hong Kong , Australia , India , England , Netherlands , Germany , Italy and Switzerland . We had a core team from last year with a number of new stringers joining the team . Some things I noticed this time were less spin rackets , only 1 with 16 x 15 stringing pattern ; more spin rackets with 18 main strings , more 18x 20 stringing patterns and more hybrids with poly mains and crosses . We also saw the majority of rackets were from Babolat , Wilson and Head , with Yonex making the largest increase in rackets . The tournament does everything possible to keep the players and public happy . The players get free stringing the last three years along with many new benefi ts every year . They allowed the stringing team to make photos on Rod Laver Arena this year ( above ).