Horrors of the 2011 Orange Bowl Stringing Service

drakulie · 12-08-2011, 07:00 PM

As you may or may not know, the USTA this year moved the venue of the Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships from the hard courts of the Key Biscayne Tennis Center to the har-tru courts at the Veltri Tennis Center in Plantation, Florida. This tournament is considered one of the most prestigious junior tournaments in the world. The City of Plantation was awarded the venue because of its ability to host such a large event on har-tru courts. Umpires, score boards, volunteers, tents for players to relax and/or eat, personal trainers, physicians, plenty of parking, security, etc were all planned and on site. Unfortunately, the City of Plantation, USTA, tournament organizers/director, and Orange Bowl Committee forgot to provide much less plan for even an adequate stringing service.

What the top junior players from all over the world were left with was the inadequate stringing service of the tennis center, and a few part time employees of the park, none of which are USRSA certified as stringers or Master Racquet Technicians (MRT’s), or work professionally as stringers.
What ensued was a complete and utter fiasco. If you thought you knew what disorganization, chaos and terrible service were, the stringing service of this tournament invented a whole new meaning to the words.

Racquets as well as reels of string, sets of strings were consistently lost throughout the first few days of the tournament, which included qualifiers. Racquets were consistently completed late or not completed at all for the days match. Many of the reels and sets of strings lost were never found nor refunded to the players. The stringing room had a look of disarray and disorganization with the racquets thrown in one location and the reels/strings left just about everywhere else with no system of organization. One coach reported he had to wait 48 hours for his student’s racquets to be completed. One player reported when he picked up his two racquets, one was not strung and the other was strung with a string he was not familiar with (his reel could not be found). Having only one hour before his first round match started, he had no choice but to play with a string he was not familiar with.

Reports of racquets strung with the wrong string, or strung with a multi in the mains and a poly in the crosses even though the player asked for it the other way around were rampant. One father reported when he went to pick up his son’s racquet it was not ready. Needing the racquet so his son could take to his upcoming match, the stringers resolved the dilemma by placing all the mains in the frame, pulling tension once, clamping and tying off. They then put in 4-5 crosses, tensioned, clamped, and repeated this until the crosses were completed. Voila ! A racquet needing 35 total pulls completed with 4-5 pulls in about 5 minutes.

A few players reported their racquets damaged (warped) due to being left on the stringing machines half strung for hours. One player reported his frame had been left on the stringing machine half strung over night. He claimed he saw his racquet on the stringing machine half strung before he left for the day. When he arrived early the next morning his frame was still on the machine half strung and un-touched from the previous day.

With so many players, coaches, and family members who are themselves either certified stringers or home stringers roaming the tennis center and stringing room, they were shocked at witnessing so many flawed and inappropriate techniques being used by the stringers of the tournament. Some of these techniques included double, triple or even quadruple pulling strings. Stringing bottom up, using the tensioner to cinch knots, etc. One such person was shocked to witness a Prince O Port racquet being strung without the use of a boomerang tool or the table-lock. As a result, the crosses were tensioned diagonally and grommets broken. Many other frames were reported to have miss-weaves.

For those of you stringers out there who like to learn new around the world patterns, here is a great one for you. While one of the stringers was finishing the crosses at the bottom of the frame, he realized he missed one of the top crosses. NO PROBLEM. His fix was to finish the crosses on the bottom, and then on the outside of the frame, with the extra string, loop it around the outside of the frame to the cross he missed, weave it, tension, clamp and tie-off. Of course, added to the fact that this is completely inappropriate, the weave he completed was a miss-weave as two of the crosses now had the same weave pattern.

Premature string breakage was also rampant, with one player claiming to have 6 mains snapping simultaneously during her warm-up. This player as did many others opted to go off site to have their racquets strung.
No stenciling service was provided to the players. With so many of these players required to play with a stenciled racquet by their sponsors, it is again another example of the inadequacy of the stringing service provided. This simple, but essential service is provided free at major tournaments from junior to pro all over the world as part of the fee players pay to have their frames strung.

In addition, no customization service was offered such as balancing, or leading up a racquet. Of course, without an RDC, Prince Tuning Center or balance board available this would be impossible to provide. Changing grommets, grip build ups or grip replacements were also absent. Players had to go off site to have any of these services provided.

With each string job costing $15, it is an absolute disgrace and embarrassment to the sport that the very best juniors from all around the globe were provided such a horrible stringing service at the very highest stage of the game in the junior level.

That these players have spent years and thousands of hours sweating it out on the court in the hopes of being able to qualify for such an event. Or that they have spent thousands of dollars traveling from countries all over the world. Or that millions of dollars in possible endorsement deals, or scholarships offers from potential colleges may be at stake depending on their performance at this event. For such a player to be forced to go out to play a match with a string he/she is not familiar with is simply cheating this player out of a possible once in a lifetime opportunity.

These players should all be provided the best service possible to ensure fair play and ensure the highest level of play they are capable of, rather than hinder them.

Many of the players, such as those that had no choice but to play with strings they never trained with for thousands of hours, months, years were essentially cheated out of a possible once in a lifetime opportunity.

Shameful to say the least by all parties involved for allowing this to happen at the highest level of the game.

pvaudio · 12-08-2011, 07:45 PM

I would say that the Orange Bowl is the most prestigious junior tournament in the US next to the USO juniors. I think that puts it into perspective just how ridiculous this is. Wow drak, that is absolutely pathetic. They just had random pro-shop stringers?

drakulie · 12-08-2011, 07:55 PM

Actually, many of the pro shop stringers in broward county string at pro tournaments, and are exclusive stringers for academies. The stringers at the tourney are I believe part time employees of the park. Have no idea what they do there.... if they coach, are maintenance workers, etc.

One thing I could say for these guys is that they have worked their behinds off, but unfortunately, don't seem to know what they are doing and were most-likely overwhelmed and unprepared for the sheer volume of work expected at one of these tournaments.

coachrick · 12-08-2011, 10:31 PM

Follow the money.

Sounds like a total disaster. Hard to imagine they let such an important facet of the 'organization' fall through the cracks.

Irvin · 12-08-2011, 11:01 PM

“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”
― John Wooden

uk_skippy · 12-08-2011, 11:56 PM

The only good thing that could come out of this it the hope that the players will appreciate the excellent stringing services supplied elsewhere at other tournaments.

But bad stringing services can happen at any level. I'm aware of a stringing service at a top tournament this year, that failed to supply the service that the top players expect.

So, as Irvin has quoted "Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!.

Regards

Paul

brownbearfalling · 12-09-2011, 01:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uk_skippy

The only good thing that could come out of this it the hope that the players will appreciate the excellent stringing services supplied elsewhere at other tournaments.

But bad stringing services can happen at any level. I'm aware of a stringing service at a top tournament this year, that failed to supply the service that the top players expect.

Paul

This makes you appreciate a good stringing job. When people ask me how hard it is to string a racquet, I tell them it is very easy. You only need to know a few things and the rest is repetition. But the one thing I emphasize is that there are A LOT of ways you can mess up or do a bad job when stringing a racquet. This story pretty much lists all of them if not go beyond my imagination.

pvaudio · 12-09-2011, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uk_skippy

The only good thing that could come out of this it the hope that the players will appreciate the excellent stringing services supplied elsewhere at other tournaments.

But bad stringing services can happen at any level. I'm aware of a stringing service at a top tournament this year, that failed to supply the service that the top players expect.

So, as Irvin has quoted "Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!.

Regards

Paul

As you're a professional, I will not argue with your viewpoint, but rather your logic in the first sentence. Quite honestly, if I am playing in the Orange Bowl 18s, I'm already a world class junior and am not looking to appreciate the stringing service elsewhere. I think that stringing should be both an intimate relationship for the players as well as a background operation. What I mean is that the players get to know their stringers and vice versa, so they know what they need done, and how they like it done. But they should also expect that it will be done properly and when they need it to be done. To have none of the above is unacceptable, as drak is saying. But I do agree, getting terrible service anywhere makes you appreciate even decency elsewhere.

zapvor · 12-28-2011, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drakulie

Actually, many of the pro shop stringers in broward county string at pro tournaments, and are exclusive stringers for academies. The stringers at the tourney are I believe part time employees of the park. Have no idea what they do there.... if they coach, are maintenance workers, etc.

One thing I could say for these guys is that they have worked their behinds off, but unfortunately, don't seem to know what they are doing and were most-likely overwhelmed and unprepared for the sheer volume of work expected at one of these tournaments.

wow. just wow. i knew someone that actually played in the orange bowl. i have to ask them next time i see them.......

drakulie · 01-08-2012, 05:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zapvor

wow. just wow. i knew someone that actually played in the orange bowl. i have to ask them next time i see them.......

zap, did you ever speak to them? Would like to know their thoughts.

anyone else hear about any of this, or have personal experience with this matter?

RyKnocks · 12-08-2011, 10:58 PM

WoW, if I were a parent of one of these kids and got screwed like that, I would have probably raised hell, especially if there was a missing racquet. Was there a waiver or something signed by the parents before they gave up the racquets that said the stringers were not responsible for anything?

If anything, that tournament should be excluded from having any impact on the kids' record/overall standing and should be re-done on a fair level. I'm pretty new to tennis but that is just appalling, especially reading that racquets were done in 4-5 pulls....wow....

Squidward · 12-09-2011, 12:17 AM

Unbelievable! Sounds like an utter Fiasco!!

lefty10spro · 12-09-2011, 03:20 AM

Shame on the Orange Bowl committee. I strung for the Easter Bowl for years in Central Florida (Grenelefe Resort), South Florida (Doral) and in California (Riviera). None of what Drak describes took place in our operation, and the Easter Bowl is not on the scale of the Orange Bowl. Sad story for old stringing pro like myself to read.

gotwheels · 12-09-2011, 10:32 AM

Drakulie’s report is appalling, but not surprising as so many tennis players/ parents /officials do not recognize the value of the racquet/stringing technician. Racquet stringing is not rocket science and can be easily learned, relatively speaking. And here comes the hook, speaking as an engineer, detail oriented type of individual – a true racquet technician understands the dynamics /cause-effect relationships of the frame and the string; the stringbed effects of clamp placement, tension, stringing direction, etc; the impact of mass, balance, and swingweight; grips, grip size and grip geometries; and on and on involving physics and engineering science. This is an elite group led by people like John Gugel and others. This group is at the high end of the scale. The lower end is the person who gets the Klippermate and by his third frame is ready for customers (no offense to KlipperUSA, as a competent individual can produce quality results with this equipment).

Several years ago, when I decided I needed to learn to string a tennis frame to benefit my daughter’s game, I visited a USRSA Master Racquet Technician with questions and a request for training. He was not interested in my request and explained to me that one might be considered a competent stringer after 1,000 frames, which at the time seemed ludicrous to me. Years later, after significant time devoted to learning this craft and a quest for stringing knowledge, I am comfortable to string my own frames and a few for others, knowing I will never be good enough or know enough and will strive to learn as long as I string. Back to my request from the USRSA MRT for training, I do not know if the 1,000 frame barrier is real, but I do think the 100+ range is real and then only if one has had objective, recorded QC measures coupled with controlled experimentation and observation. Even better would be to have a stringing mentor like a Mr. Gugel, or Mr. A. Lee, or Mr. Elliot. These folks and others have forgotten more about stringing and frames than I will ever hope to know.

The bottom line is that the Orange Bowl participants deserved a competent, qualified stringing room. An old workplace adage - P⁷ ( Prior Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance) applies!

Sorry for the diatribe. Thanks TW TT, Granndslamstringers, ggtennis, Sir John Elliot, stringforum.net, and others for the opportunity to open our minds and learn!

Happy holidays to all!!

kingofstring · 12-09-2011, 12:09 PM

That is terrible! These juniors deserve better!

monkey-ranch · 12-09-2011, 02:30 PM

I was there and I have to say that I really wanted to puke. I saw quadruple pulls, bottom to top stringing and a lot more. I even saw a stringer set the mains, tie them off and leave the frame in the machine to take a 3 hour nap. It was a terrible service. There was a point where there were no stringers working. They all left the room with 25+ frames waiting to be done. I see that drakulie mentioned the 5 min. stringjob. I am speechless, as soon as I remember something else I will post it.

Makumba ska!

fortun8son · 12-10-2011, 02:26 AM

Wow! Just Wow!
I am appalled. That is just unacceptable incompetance!
For shame!
My Sports Authority trainees would do better! (Under supervision, of course, so they don't panic)

bigmatt · 12-10-2011, 03:26 AM

The stringer is probably the most important person at a tournament, especially one of this stature. Players are so directly affected by their strings that the organizers need to be sure they have qualified racquet technicians on hand.
Whoever ran the tournament this year needs to be replaced.

000KFACTOR90000 · 12-10-2011, 03:48 AM

I think it should be the last time at that venue.

They had their chance and blew it.

stringwalla · 12-10-2011, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drakulie

With each string job costing $15,

That seems like a great price for a tournament. I guess you get what you pay for.
Proshops around me charge $16-25. Onsite tournament stringing charges $20-$30 where I've worked.

Drak, we should get a team together and clean up some of these events to our standards

12-08-2011, 07:00 PM	#1
drakulie Talk Tennis Guru Join Date: May 2004 Location: FT. Lauderdale, Florida Posts: 23,905	Horrors of the 2011 Orange Bowl Stringing Service As you may or may not know, the USTA this year moved the venue of the Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships from the hard courts of the Key Biscayne Tennis Center to the har-tru courts at the Veltri Tennis Center in Plantation, Florida. This tournament is considered one of the most prestigious junior tournaments in the world. The City of Plantation was awarded the venue because of its ability to host such a large event on har-tru courts. Umpires, score boards, volunteers, tents for players to relax and/or eat, personal trainers, physicians, plenty of parking, security, etc were all planned and on site. Unfortunately, the City of Plantation, USTA, tournament organizers/director, and Orange Bowl Committee forgot to provide much less plan for even an adequate stringing service. What the top junior players from all over the world were left with was the inadequate stringing service of the tennis center, and a few part time employees of the park, none of which are USRSA certified as stringers or Master Racquet Technicians (MRT’s), or work professionally as stringers. What ensued was a complete and utter fiasco. If you thought you knew what disorganization, chaos and terrible service were, the stringing service of this tournament invented a whole new meaning to the words. Racquets as well as reels of string, sets of strings were consistently lost throughout the first few days of the tournament, which included qualifiers. Racquets were consistently completed late or not completed at all for the days match. Many of the reels and sets of strings lost were never found nor refunded to the players. The stringing room had a look of disarray and disorganization with the racquets thrown in one location and the reels/strings left just about everywhere else with no system of organization. One coach reported he had to wait 48 hours for his student’s racquets to be completed. One player reported when he picked up his two racquets, one was not strung and the other was strung with a string he was not familiar with (his reel could not be found). Having only one hour before his first round match started, he had no choice but to play with a string he was not familiar with. Reports of racquets strung with the wrong string, or strung with a multi in the mains and a poly in the crosses even though the player asked for it the other way around were rampant. One father reported when he went to pick up his son’s racquet it was not ready. Needing the racquet so his son could take to his upcoming match, the stringers resolved the dilemma by placing all the mains in the frame, pulling tension once, clamping and tying off. They then put in 4-5 crosses, tensioned, clamped, and repeated this until the crosses were completed. Voila ! A racquet needing 35 total pulls completed with 4-5 pulls in about 5 minutes. A few players reported their racquets damaged (warped) due to being left on the stringing machines half strung for hours. One player reported his frame had been left on the stringing machine half strung over night. He claimed he saw his racquet on the stringing machine half strung before he left for the day. When he arrived early the next morning his frame was still on the machine half strung and un-touched from the previous day. With so many players, coaches, and family members who are themselves either certified stringers or home stringers roaming the tennis center and stringing room, they were shocked at witnessing so many flawed and inappropriate techniques being used by the stringers of the tournament. Some of these techniques included double, triple or even quadruple pulling strings. Stringing bottom up, using the tensioner to cinch knots, etc. One such person was shocked to witness a Prince O Port racquet being strung without the use of a boomerang tool or the table-lock. As a result, the crosses were tensioned diagonally and grommets broken. Many other frames were reported to have miss-weaves. For those of you stringers out there who like to learn new around the world patterns, here is a great one for you. While one of the stringers was finishing the crosses at the bottom of the frame, he realized he missed one of the top crosses. NO PROBLEM. His fix was to finish the crosses on the bottom, and then on the outside of the frame, with the extra string, loop it around the outside of the frame to the cross he missed, weave it, tension, clamp and tie-off. Of course, added to the fact that this is completely inappropriate, the weave he completed was a miss-weave as two of the crosses now had the same weave pattern. Premature string breakage was also rampant, with one player claiming to have 6 mains snapping simultaneously during her warm-up. This player as did many others opted to go off site to have their racquets strung. No stenciling service was provided to the players. With so many of these players required to play with a stenciled racquet by their sponsors, it is again another example of the inadequacy of the stringing service provided. This simple, but essential service is provided free at major tournaments from junior to pro all over the world as part of the fee players pay to have their frames strung. In addition, no customization service was offered such as balancing, or leading up a racquet. Of course, without an RDC, Prince Tuning Center or balance board available this would be impossible to provide. Changing grommets, grip build ups or grip replacements were also absent. Players had to go off site to have any of these services provided. With each string job costing $15, it is an absolute disgrace and embarrassment to the sport that the very best juniors from all around the globe were provided such a horrible stringing service at the very highest stage of the game in the junior level. That these players have spent years and thousands of hours sweating it out on the court in the hopes of being able to qualify for such an event. Or that they have spent thousands of dollars traveling from countries all over the world. Or that millions of dollars in possible endorsement deals, or scholarships offers from potential colleges may be at stake depending on their performance at this event. For such a player to be forced to go out to play a match with a string he/she is not familiar with is simply cheating this player out of a possible once in a lifetime opportunity. These players should all be provided the best service possible to ensure fair play and ensure the highest level of play they are capable of, rather than hinder them. Many of the players, such as those that had no choice but to play with strings they never trained with for thousands of hours, months, years were essentially cheated out of a possible once in a lifetime opportunity. Shameful to say the least by all parties involved for allowing this to happen at the highest level of the game. __________________ Head Stringer @ the LTC, Babolat Star 4 Stringer http://www.youtube.com/user/drakulie

12-08-2011, 07:55 PM	#3
drakulie Talk Tennis Guru Join Date: May 2004 Location: FT. Lauderdale, Florida Posts: 23,905	Actually, many of the pro shop stringers in broward county string at pro tournaments, and are exclusive stringers for academies. The stringers at the tourney are I believe part time employees of the park. Have no idea what they do there.... if they coach, are maintenance workers, etc. One thing I could say for these guys is that they have worked their behinds off, but unfortunately, don't seem to know what they are doing and were most-likely overwhelmed and unprepared for the sheer volume of work expected at one of these tournaments. __________________ Head Stringer @ the LTC, Babolat Star 4 Stringer http://www.youtube.com/user/drakulie

12-08-2011, 11:01 PM	#5
Irvin Legend Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Marietta, Ga Posts: 6,970	“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” ― John Wooden __________________ Irvin - I wish Facebook would notify me when people delete me so I can 'Like it'

12-08-2011, 11:56 PM	#6
uk_skippy Hall Of Fame Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Waterlooville, Hampshire, UK Posts: 1,778	The only good thing that could come out of this it the hope that the players will appreciate the excellent stringing services supplied elsewhere at other tournaments. But bad stringing services can happen at any level. I'm aware of a stringing service at a top tournament this year, that failed to supply the service that the top players expect. So, as Irvin has quoted "Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!. Regards Paul __________________ Head IG Prestige MP; USRSA MRT, Wimbledon stringing team since '04; Babolat stringing team '10-'13. Twitter - @therqtstringer

12-08-2011, 10:58 PM	#11
RyKnocks Semi-Pro Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 437	WoW, if I were a parent of one of these kids and got screwed like that, I would have probably raised hell, especially if there was a missing racquet. Was there a waiver or something signed by the parents before they gave up the racquets that said the stringers were not responsible for anything? If anything, that tournament should be excluded from having any impact on the kids' record/overall standing and should be re-done on a fair level. I'm pretty new to tennis but that is just appalling, especially reading that racquets were done in 4-5 pulls....wow.... __________________ Head Youtek Radical Mid Plus Gosen OG Sheep Micro 17g Crystal 60M/58C