Adam Queen's fingers nimbly slide across the empty face of the tennis racket. The hole in the frame quickly fills as Queen, with a surgeon's precision, guides a 40-foot piece of synthetic white string along its course — over a string, under a string, over a string, under a string.
It's hard to believe he hasn't missed a step, which would be disaster for Xavier Malisse, whose red-and-black racket is on the rack.
Queen and two co-workers have one of the more important jobs of anyone at the BB&T Atlanta Open, taking place this week at Atlantic Station. Their eyes, fingers and machines string the rackets that players such as Malisse will use this week. A racket whose strings don't have the proper tension won't enable the player to hit the ball like he wants. It's Queen's job to make sure that's not a possibility.
"This is something that has to be perfect and has to be precise," Queen said. "If not, they are going to be out there thinking, 'This isn't right,' and we want them to play with confidence."
Working in the back of the player's lounge, located next to the movie theater, Queen said he will string as many as 50 rackets a day. A player or a rep will bring several rackets and tell Queen, or one of his three-man team, the preferred tension. To ensure consistency, the stringers and players are paired on the same machine throughout the week. Queen wants to eliminate as many variables as possible.
While fans may assume that the rackets are the most important piece of equipment, Queen said the strings are as valuable. Players usually bring their preferred brand of strings with them, rather than have sponsors send it to the site.
"The players know, they will pick a racket and do the fine-tuning with the stringing," he said.
The company Queen works for, Your Serve, has strung rackets for the past three tournaments in Atlanta. He grabs one of Malisse's rackets, places it on the gray machine and grabs a packet of synthetic string. The most popular is natural gut, which consists of strands of cow intestines. Some prefer different versions of polyester. The least popular is synthetic. Some players like to mix it up with the main string, which runs up and down. That string consists of one material and the cross string another to mix power and control. Each string is 20 feet long. Some players, such as Malisse, prefer the main and cross be one string, which is 40 feet long.
The tension is measured by pulling the string through a hole and wrapping it around a lever on the machine that pulls it to the proper weight. This is done on every pass.
The amount of tension determines the amount of control. A softer tension will result in a faster ball because it will "shoot" off the face with a trampoline effect. Once the racket is strung, the person making it will take a stencil and paint the logo on to the strings. Each job takes between 20-30 minutes.
Every player's string tension is different and can be affected by the type of string, the type of racket, the player's style, the court's surface, the type of ball used and the weather conditions.
Queen said Atlanta's high humidity will cause the ball to fly farther, so players go with a higher tension so that they can have more control. The players will try out different tensions in practice until they find something they are comfortable with. Jack Sock will go as low as 40 pounds of tension, while Malisse will go as high as 68. A recreation player's racket with a polyester string will have a tension in the 50s.
Queen said a player can grab a racket, hit the strings with their hands and know instantly if the tension is off by as small a margin as 1 pound. It never is because the machines are digitally accurate.
"With our guys and our machines, it's not going to be off," Queen said.
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