Do pros stencil their own rackets?

[Jmon99]

Not the most interesting topic I know, but I was watching a WTA match earlier today and I noticed that Daniela Hantuchova had a horrific stencil job on one of her rackets. It looked vaguely like the Prince 'P' but it wasn't in the right place and it looked like it had been drawn by a toddler. Which got me wondering, who stencils a pro's rackets? Do they do it themselves? The coach? The manufacturer?

[rdis10093]

my friend is like a semi pro, he gets his racquets at a very nice price. one of the deals though is that each time he has to put the wilson logo on the srings.

I am sure it is different for each player. If you can afford to restring every day, then no the pro shop does if for you. But like my friend who plays with poly for a week at a time, the logo starts to come off and he re does it for tourney events.

[RF20Lennon]

Nope they get it stenciled by the Sponsers cause they need to show off the brand

[cluckcluck]

The stringers do the stenciling after each job.

[PBODY99]

Some do not want the stringer to stencil the frame as it has been reported by tour stringers on this board.
I have to stay after my sponsored Jr to freshen up their stencil when in a tournament.

[drakulie]

for the most part, the tournament stringers stencil the frames. However, there are pros who want to do it themsleves and request that the stringing team not stencil the frame after stringing.

[Vlad_C]

I saw a top-100 player who received a couple of fresh-strung racquets during a match.
He handed them to his coach, who proceeded to stencil the logo on them right then and there.

[db10s]

In delray I brought up a racket to (probably drak) but I'm not sure, for a player because he needed it stenciled to play with it.

[novak.20v]

I remember seeing Paradorn Srichaphan stenciling his own racquets between sets a few years ago, well more like 9-10 years ago.

[thejackal]

from another thread:

"some pros are pretty superstitious about gear.

a girl I know on the tour (career high around 70ish in singles, and 30 in doubles) used to play with the nTour and the kTour, but could no longer play with a racket with an assymetic paintjob, so she is no playing with a Steam (which is 0.25 inches shorter and 5in larger).

she used to use both sides of the strings to hit the ball, but because of the kTour's paintjob, she now only hits the ball with 1 side of his strings.

she never lets the stringers stencil her rackets, because the W needs to point the same way all the time.

...meanwhile, her rackets are pretty much stock (not much lead if any, lux mains, gut crosses strung lower 50s)"

[LeeD]

In 1977, ColinDibley did not have Dunlop stencils, so didn't care.
HaroldSolomon brought Bancroft stencils for us to spray. He had some Wilson rackets in his bag, but they stayed there.
RaulRamirez wanted any kind of W, didn't have stencils, and wanted different colors.
DickStockton was particular about the stencils he brought in, and had to be present when they were sprayed.
I was busy stringing other rackets, and never sprayed any stencils.

[Fee]

Originally Posted by drakulie

for the most part, the tournament stringers stencil the frames. However, there are pros who want to do it themsleves and request that the stringing team not stencil the frame after stringing.

Yep, this. And I worked at a Challenger where the stringer did not/would not stencil because he was working alone and he didn't have time. I've seen Jan-Michael take an ink bottle out of his bag and do his own strings, freehand, since it's just a P it's pretty easy for him to do after all these years.

[xeropwnage]

Originally Posted by Fee

Yep, this. And I worked at a Challenger where the stringer did not/would not stencil because he was working alone and he didn't have time. I've seen Jan-Michael take an ink bottle out of his bag and do his own strings, freehand, since it's just a P it's pretty easy for him to do after all these years.

haha, i'm sorry. this made me giggle.

[bigmatt]

A lot of the players at Futures tournaments don't have sponsorships, so I seldom get requests for stencils when I do them. At higher levels, almost everyone seems to have a frame or string deal, so they usually ask for us to do them.
At a main tour event in the 80s, I stenciled a frame for Paul Annacone, and he asked me to not do it any more, since he liked to do them himself (seems he had a superstition about which way the "P" pointed). He used the one I did as a practice frame.
Maybe Drak can confirm this, but I understand the Australian players sponsored by Yonex like to put the stencil on "upside down", since they're from Down Under.

[sixone90]

Originally Posted by bigmatt

Maybe Drak can confirm this, but I understand the Australian players sponsored by Yonex like to put the stencil on "upside down", since they're from Down Under.

It's just Hewitt. Tomic doesn't have it upside down. Hewitt had it upside down accidentally in the early days and just stuck with it

[Fee]

Originally Posted by xeropwnage

haha, i'm sorry. this made me giggle.

because you're nine?