Luxilon on Tour

Picture by Jeff Davies/doubleXposure.com

Dmitri Tursunov of Russia (ACE Touch) beat Feliciano Lopez of Spain 4-6 6-4 6-3 in a thrilling featured match on Grandstand. The local crowd - with a very large Hispanic contingent - was, as always, very vocal in support of their Spanish-speaking hero, but Dmitri was able to overcome both the crowd and the solid and exciting play from his opponent to win the match and advance to the 4th round where he will meet 10th seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.

Picture by Manuela Davies/doubleXposure.com

Dudi Sela of Israel (Alue Power Rogh 125) also overcame the odds to beat the 14th seed, Tommy Robredo of Spain, 7-6(5) 6-1.

Picture by Manuela Davies/doubleXposure.com

Luxilon is everywhere at the Sony Ericsson Open!  Not only is the Luxilon team working as the official stringer for the event, but they are also busy working in the retail side as well.  Luxilon is selling its products onsite at this years SEO through the Tennis Plaza retail tent. 

Luxilon has started a revolution on the pro tour, and that revolution is now evolving into the retail environment.  In the first week of the tournament over 500 sets of Luxilon has been sold, and about 60% of the Wilson racquets purchased have been strung with Luxilon strings…and that’s with still over a week left of the tournament! 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the retail tent Luxilon has its entire string line available to the tennis fans.  This gives players the choice to purchase some of the Luxilon strings that may not be as well known.  Tracy Singian from Luxilon stated that “ALU Power 125, and ALU Power Rough are the most popular strings that we have sold at the tournament.”  She also stated that “it is always fun to get to talk to players about their games, and have them feel the difference Luxilon can make in their game.” 

Luxilon will have retail areas set up at most of the world’s great tennis tournament, if you find yourself at one of them make sure to stop in to talk about strings!

 

 

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NAME: Tim Strawn

Resides: Roanoke, VA

Stringer for: 18 years 

Tim Strawn has had many very interesting experiences through stringing.  He has had the opportunity to travel and string at 3 Wimbledon championships, 2 US Open’s, and countless other tournaments.  Tim says so far this Sony Ericsson Open tournament has been one of the busiest he has ever strung at.

Tim’s day usually starts at 6:00am, and by 7:10 Roman Prokes and Tim have breakfast at a Cuban Coffee restaurant here in Miami.  He usually arrives to the site by 8:00am, and strings over 30 racquets before his day is done around 11:30 at night.  Its an intense job that not many people could probably handle.

 

When Tim is not stringing at pro events he is still busy working in the stringing world.  Right now a big project he is working on is the GSS Racquet Stringers Symposium.  The symposium will take place October 11-14 in Orlando, near Disney World.  The purpose of the symposium is to train racquet stringers from all around the world.  The symposium will be tought by some of the best stringers in the world, and industry insiders.  One of the highlights of the symposium will be a Wilson/Luxilon Pro tour stringing room simulation.  A room will be set up just like at the pro tournament, and guests will have challenges in stringing with time limits which are very similar to the requests that happen from the pros during the tournament.  There will also be many other sessions with information on Machine repair and maintenance, customizing racquets, working with natural gut, and information on how to grow your stringing business.  If you are interested in learning some of the finer points of stringing the symposium would be great for you!

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Luxilon-sponsored Kevin Anderson of South Africa, ranked 122 in the world created a major upset at the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida by defeating the 3rd seeded Novak Djokovic in the 2nd round of the event. It was Djokovic’ first match of the tournament as he received a bye in the first round. It was Anderson’s 4th match - he had to play (and win) two qualifying rounds to earn a place in the main draw of the event and then won a tough three-setter in a tie-break against Agustin Calleri of Argentina to advance to the second round and a match-up with the 2006 champion and also reigning 2008 Austalian Open.

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His win comes on the heels of making it to the final of the Tennis Channel Open a few weeks ago. Prior to that event, he had lost both of the only two ATP matches he had played. This is also his first win over a top-10 player.

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“I really don’t know what to say right now. To know what he has done and what a great player is and to have beaten him - it’s a tremendous experience for me,” Anderson said after the match.

© Jeff Davies - doubleXposure.com
Anderson, who signed a 2-year contract with Luxilon at the beginning of the year, uses Luxilon Alu Power. He now faces Igor Andreev in the third round.

Have you ever wondered what the process of stringing a tennis racquet is at a pro tournament is?  Well this is your chance! 

Throughout the Sony Ericsson Open well over 1,500 racquets will go through the Luxilon Stringing room.  Each racquet receives excessive attention to make sure it meets the exact requirements the pro’s need.  The Luxilon stringing room is organized into many steps which ensures the racquets are done on time, and done with no mistakes for the best players in the world. 

STEP 1:  Once a player drops off a racquet, the information is put into the computer system.  The computer records what racquet is being strung, the string used, the tension required in both the mains and the crosses, and the time and date the player would like to pick up the racquet.   

 

STEP 2:  Once all of the Information is in the computer system, a sticker is printed with all the relevant information for the stringer.  The sticker is placed on a plastic bag which the racquet is then placed into before being given to the stringer.

 

STEP 3:  Once the stringer takes the racquet, the first thing they do is cut out the old strings from the racquet.

 

 STEP 4:  The stringer mounts the racquet on the stringing machine, and begins the stringing process.  They string the main strings first, and then the followed by the cross strings.

 

 STEP 5: Once stringing is complete nearly every racquet has a stencil placed on it.  Every player tells the stringing team what stencil they want on the racquet.

STEP 6:  After the stringer completes his work, the racquet is placed in alphabetical order in boxes in the stringing room so it can be found quickly when the player comes to pick it up.

 

STEP 7:  The racquet is taken to the court and used by some of the best players in the world. 

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Gustavo ‘Guga’ Keurten, one of the best-known and best-loved, players of the 1990’s made his farewell appearance at the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne. Suffering from injuries, Guga has not played a professional match for just over a year but has set his heart on playing his last matches at the scenes of some of his greatest triumphs - Key Biscayne, Roland Garros and, of course, his ‘home event’ the Brasil Open.

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Guga is one of the most widely-recognized sportsmen of his time and loved by his fans - particularly from the Hispanic world. Brasilian flags and exuberant, cheering fans are a constant feature of his matches. He also has a special place in history of Luxilon. He turned professional in 1995 aged 19. His early career on the pro tour was unremarkable but, in late 1996, he ‘discovered’ Luxilon strings which, at that time, represented a technological breakthrough in the formulation of strings but were still little known and little used on the professional tour (or anywhere else…!). Guga loved the strings and his game immediately improved. So much so that, six months later, he shocked the tennis world by winning the French Open Championships at Roland Garros. He credited his win and his success on his Luxilon strings and the world started to take notice of both Guga and the strings that he spoke of so highly. And the rest, as they say, is history for both Guga and Luxion. Both went on to accomplish great tennis fame - Guga as the World’s Number One in 2000 and Luxilon as the most popular string on the pro-tour.

© Jeff Davies - doubleXposure.com
The world came to know the true flair and genius of this gentle giant who won three French Open Championships in spite of being plagued by injury throughout his career. As well as demonstrating a formidable reputation on the court, not so many know the caring, sensitive man who gave every one of his trophies to his brother - physically and mentally disabled as a result of being oxygen-deprived at birth. He has also donated the entire prize money from at least one major win every year of his career to a charity that cares for the developmentally disabled in his hme town of Florianapolis.

In his final match in Key Biscayne, Guga’s Head racquet still contains his favorite Luxilon string and the Luxilon logo that he has displayed since 1996. Although he was in obvious pain throughout the match, he made it through to its conclusion - and  a standing ovation from the crowd - after losing a tough second set battle against his opponent, Sebastien Grosjean of France

© Jeff Davies - doubleXposure.com
Luxilon sincerely thanks Guga for his support over the years and is proud to have helped him to the level of greatness that he has achieved. We hope he enjoys the remaining matches of his career and a well-deserved retirement. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him and were energized by his passion both on and off the court…

© Jeff Davies - doubleXposure.com

Len’s Bio:

Hometown: Moscow, Russia

Resides: Manhatten, NY

Number of racquets Strung Yesterday: 20

Len is a professional stringer whose life is customizing, and stringing tennis racquets.  Len has been with the Wilson/Luxilon stringing team since the first tournament the team strung at.  During his life Len has strung at every major tennis tournament except Wimbledon for countless professional players.  Len currently works for RPNY Tennis in Manhatten. 

During the Sony Ericsson Open Len has strung racquets for players like Tursunov, Lisa Raymond, and Jamie Murray.  Len enjoys the work, but says the hours are very long.  On average he (and the rest of the stringing team) start at 8:00 in the morning and string straight through until after the last match of the night is complete.  This usually isn’t until after midnight.  Once the workday is finally done Len likes to get some food at Checkers which is a fast food restaurant across from the hotel.  Len says Checkers “is best hamburger and fries in Miami at midnight…well actually only one open”  After the burger it is off to the hotel for a beer before a quick rest before doing it all again.

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The Luxilon stringing room at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami is now up and running.  10 world class stringers from around the world have made their way to the Luxilon stringing room.  Throughout the tournament the stringers will be posting blog entries so you can get a behind the scenes look at what it is like to string for the best tennis players in the world.

During the duration of the tournament nearly 1,750 racquets will be strung.  Yesterday during the qualifying rounds of the tournament the staff strung an amazing 185 racquets in one day.  The highest number of racquets strung by one individual stringer was 34!!  Now that the main draw has started, and all players are here, today will be the busiest day for the stringing room. 

During the rest of the tournament be sure to watch for Luxilon player results, blogs from the stringers, and other exciting news from the tournament.  Also, make sure you check out the limited time “Ask the Expert” section where you can ask the pro stringers questions direct from the Sony Ericsson Open stringing room!