Winston-Salem $15K Futures |

2015 Year in Review – Big Time Tennis

Posted on January 1, 2016 by bigtimetennis

Our 8th year in business, 2015 was another great year for Big Time Tennis, many thanks to our individual customers, the Wake Forest University men’s and club tennis teams, and opportunities to string at some big tournaments.

The year started in a very special way, with David being named Tennis Industry Magazine’s “Stringer of the Year” for 2014. To make it even more special, Wake Forest tennis alum David Hopkins accepted the award on David’s behalf.

Although we did not match our record number of rackets (reached in 2013), we nearly crossed the 2,000 threshold thanks to steady work form the Wake Forest men’s team (almost 900 rackets) and the opportunity to string some new tournaments:

2015: 1,974
2014: 1,759
2013: 2,149
2012: 1,467
2011: 1,265
2010: 1,171
2009: 750
2008: 251

The Wake Forest men had an outstanding year, and I (David) was excited to be a part of it, including spending nearly two rainy weeks in Waco, Texas at Baylor University working on the MOZI Tennis stringing team.

It was fun to work the tournament on site because I could also see Wake Forest play in the Sweet Sixteen (losing to TCU, alas) and Noah Rubin make his run to the men’s singles final.

Selfie delivering rackets to the NCAA men’s singles finalist

Almost immediately after getting home from Waco, the ITF Pro Circuit Futures of Winston-Salem began. I had never strung a Pro Circuit event, and I found it very fascinating, posting a number of blogs about it. Of course we treat all players equally in the stringing room, but with only one customer playing in the final, I was able to support Matija Pecotic, who brought home the championship trophy.

Thanks again to MOZI Tennis, I had the chance to string at the ATP World Tour/WTA Tour CitiOpen in Washington, DC. A highlight was having the chance to string one more racket for the Australian stalwart player and Grand Slam Champion Lleyton Hewitt.

The Yamane family made a big contribution to the MOZI Tennis stringing team at our home town Winston-Salem Open. We even got to meet “The Magician,” Fabrice Santoro who was there coaching. Tournament stringing can be exhausting and stressful, but it is made much easier when you have a great boss, Dustin Tankersley, and get to work with your loved ones.

A final highlight of the year was having the opportunity to string rackets for all of the members of the Mount Tabor High School Girls Tennis Team. I am thankful that their coach, Taylor McDaniel, appreciates the importance of strings to performance. It is the only part of the racket that is supposed to touch the ball after all!

It’s hard to imagine 2016 being as great as 2015, but we are hoping to have the opportunity to exceed our own expectations.

The Economics of Professional Futures Events

Posted on June 16, 2015 by bigtimetennis

When I told people I was stringing at the $15,000 ITF Pro Circuit Futures of Winston-Salem this year, many thought the $15K referred to the winner’s prize money. They were surprised to learn that $15K was the total purse. For both singles and doubles.

The prize money breakdown for a $15K ITF Pro Circuit event is as follows:

SINGLES PURSE: $11,250
Winner: $2,160
Finalist: $1,272
Semifinalist: $753
Quarterfinalist: $438
R16: $258
R32: $156

So, someone who makes the main draw and loses first round earns $156. Eight of the 32 players in the main draw of the Futures of Winston-Salem were qualifiers. That means they won matches on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday in order to qualify. All of them lost their first round main draw matches. So, they earned $156 for 4 days of work.

DOUBLES PURSE; $3,750
Winning Team: $930
Finalists: $540
Semifinalists: $324
Quarterfinalists: $192
R16: $108

There is no qualifying for doubles, so all 16 teams playing doubles are in the main draw. The 8 teams that lost in the first round split $108. If you don’t have a calculator handy that is $54 per person.

Consider the economics of the tournament winner, Matija Pecotic. He won $2,160, but because he is Croatian the tournament director had to withhold 30% taxes. So his prize money check was $1,512.

I don’t know the full details of his expenses, but he arrived in Winston-Salem on Sunday and left the following Sunday, spending 7 days in town. A possible scenario is as follows:

Hotel: 7 nights at $80 = $560
Food: 7 days at $40 = $280
Stringing: 15 rackets at $16 = $240
Transportation: $350
TOTAL: $1,430

So, the winner of the tournament may have netted less than $100 for his week’s work.

That means, by far, as the stringer of the tournament I made more than any of the players (second in income for the week only to the ITF Pro Circuit tournament supervisor, who made 50% more than me).

Of course, I also worked more hours than anyone at the tournament other than the tournament director (who really got the short end of the stick). I was on site for 10 days (from 11am the day before qualifying started through the conclusion of the tournament). I arrived two hours before the first match every match day, which was 8:00am for the first 7 days and 9:00am for the semifinals and finals. Even though I was not stringing the whole time, I was on-site and on call for 111 hours over 10 days, averaging just over 1 racket per hours I was on site.

So, I earned $16 an hour. Not bad, but like the players in the tournament, not enough to live on. I string the tournament to supplement my main income and because I enjoy stringing a few tournaments a year for the experience. The players enter Futures events not primarily for the money, but for the ATP ranking points. The money they lose playing in Futures events are an investment in their future as professional tennis players.

By accumulating a few points at a Futures event they can potentially work their way up to Challenger Level events, which pay even more prize money and ranking points, and then to the ATP World Tour, the major leagues of professional tennis, where a player can actually making a living.

String Tensions at ITF Pro Circuit $15K Futures of Winston-Salem

Posted on June 13, 2015 by bigtimetennis

For various reasons I hope to write about in the future, most amateur players string their rackets too tight. As noted previously, the average string tension for the rackets I strung at the NCAA tournament last month was 53.3 pounds.

Of course, there is no single “correct” tension for any particular string, racket, or player — or combination thereof. As at the NCAAs, at the ITF Pro Circuit Futures of Winston-Salem I saw a 20 pound range from the loosest strung racket (42 pounds) to the tightest (62 pounds).

But looking at the average string tension over a large number of rackets can be instructive. So, I was interested to find the following for the string tensions I recorded at the Futures of Winston-Salem:

Mean = 52.94
Median = 53

This is very close to the 53.3 pound average tension I recorded for the rackets I did at the NCAA tournament.

I estimate that this 53 pound average is about 5 pounds looser than the average string tension for my amateur customers, even those who use all monofilament strings.

String loose people!

Stringing Report for ITF Pro Circuit $15K Futures of Winston-Salem

Posted on June 11, 2015 by bigtimetennis

At the ITF Pro Circuit $15K Futures of Winston-Salem last week, I strung rackets for 34 different players.

33 players used all monofilament strings, including one who used a hybrid of two different monofilaments (Luxilon 4G S mains and Luxilon Alu Power crosses). One player used a traditional hybrid of Luxilon Alu Power mains and Wilson Sensation crosses.

Here are the brands of string we saw in our stringing room:

Solinco – 38%
Luxilon – 21%
Babolat – 12%
Yonex – 9%
Pacific, Genesis – 6%
Dunlop, Head, Tecnifibre – 3%

(Note that 3% = 1 racket.)

As I noted in my post on stringing at the NCAA tournament recently, the plurality of players using Solinco string is evidence of their success in connecting with junior and college players, and those connections seem to be percolating up to the lower levels of professional tennis now (which see a large number of junior and college players involved).

On the ATP World Tour, Luxilon is still the dominant string, but we do see more Solinco string there, too.

More in later posts on racket brands and tensions.

Stringing at Different Levels of Professional Tennis

Posted on June 10, 2015 by bigtimetennis

Following the action at the French Open while stringing at an a $15K ITF Pro Circuit Futures event, as I have noted previously, brings out some interesting contrasts between different levels of professional tennis.

In the best of 5 set matches at the French Open, Stanislas Wawinka and Roger Federer have 10 rackets strung per match. For one match this year, Kei Nishikori reportedly had 9 rackets strung before the match and another 9 rackets strung while he was playing.

At the ATP World Tour 500 Series Citi Open in Washington, DC that I have worked for the past several years, Nishikori would string 4 rackets for every match, Milos Raonic 6, and Marcos Baghdatis 5, for example. At the ATP World Tour 250 Series Winston-Salem Open, were commonly saw main draw players string 3-4 rackets per match.

Although I only have experience stringing at one ITF Pro Circuit Futures event, the contrast to the ATP World Tour is striking. Only 16 of 56 players in the Futures qualifying had racket strung on-site, including just 1 of the 6 seeded players in qualifying. Of 32 players in the main draw, only 20 had rackets strung on-site. Three of 8 seeded players did not have any rackets strung during the tournament, all of whom made the quarterfinals. Consequently, I only strung rackets for 4 of 8 quarterfinalists, 2 of 4 semifinalists, and 1 of the 2 finalists (including the champion, Matija Pecotic!).

This is not to say that the players who are not stringing on-site are not stringing rackets. Some players I know are traveling with portable stringing machines like the Pro Stringer.

I also know that some players are getting inconsistent tensions stringing for themselves. One coach complained that his player cannot swing out on balls because of the inconsistency of his racket stringing, and the player turned in two rackets after he won a couple of rounds and made some money.

Another player told me he strung his own rackets for practice, but had me string his match rackets. This is a cost effective strategy, but not an optimal choice because you want to practice how you will play.

I also know that in some locations – Nigeria and Egypt, for example – the “official stringers” do not produce consistent results either. Indeed, we have heard players at ATP World Tour events complain about the quality of the stringing at some tournaments they play.

So, I don’t begrudge players who chose not to use my services at the Futures of Winston-Salem. At the same time, I believe those players who had me string rackets for them got what they paid for. I know the tournament champion, who was the top stringer for the week, felt so.

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