I’m sitting here watching the U.S. Open and trying to get a good look at his racket. It looks like when it was strung, they skipped a couple of holes, leaving two gaps running across the bottom of the head. I’ve played tennis since I was little and have been seeing this for years, but I never knew what the purpose was. Or am I seeing this wrong?
I don’t know what the purpose is except to guess that Sampras has determined that he hits the ball best with the strings in that pattern.
I would think Sampras’ racquet is strung at a tension much higher than any of us has ever used. He probably breaks a string in a racket during every match.
I found the answer. You want most of the tension to be in the middle of the racket, and stringing techniques are designed to provide for that. This provides maximum control and power if hit correctly. If you have less string, it becomes even tighter. So, if you pretty consistently hit the ball in the middle of the racket head, you can get rid of some string length by skipping a couple of holes. Just thought I’d share.
Actually, you’re not on the right track. What seems to be missing strings near the throat of the racquet are actually stencil marks (like the big W on Wilson or P on Prince racquets) for the brand of string he uses, Babolat.
His racquet is strung very tightly, at 75 lbs, which is alot for the size of his string bed (85 sq in, I think). That’s 10 pounds higher than the recommended maximum.
Taking out strings from the string bed would not necessarily add more control. If it did, racquet manufacturers would change their stringing methods.
Actually, the more the tension, the less the power; conversely, the less the tension the more the power (trampoline effect). Sampras doesn’t need any more power, so he strings his racket very tightly. He sometimes breaks several during a match, not only because of the tension, but because he uses a very thin gut.
Aestivalis has it right.
I saw this the other day but didn’t post. It’s not a stringing technique, it’s stenciled in towards the bottom of the racket. Why is anyone’s guess.
It has more to do with his sponsor than any type of competitive edge.
OK. I had asked the tennis “expert” at work and that’s what he had told me. He strings his own racket and has his strung that way. The reasoning sounded plausible enough to me. When I first looked at his(Sampras) racket, it looked like it was stenciled in, but what confused me at first was waht I thought were white main strings going across. It could have been a play of the light, though. Also, I didn’t mean to say control and power, I meant to just say control. I string mine at 64lbs because I need all the power help I can get. Thanks everybody.
Not to leave your post in the dust, if I remeber correctly, Sampras has his strings tighter than anyone on the tennis circuit.
Why this would help? No idea. Leaving the strings loose is suppose to give you better control. Hmmm.
I do know for a fact he has the tightest strings. That’s why he breaks them so much. My understanding is that he has a #1 and a #2 racket. If the strings on #1 break, he’ll play with #2, but #1 immediately goes off for restringing. It’s usually back in about 20 minutes or so. He then switches back and continues on like that for the rest of the match. I saw him play a match one time where he broke his strings 4 times. Sure enough, as soon as he switched rackets, someone ran out grabbed the old one and had it back within a few minutes. He’s picky.
Not only does he have a #1 and #2 racket, Aglarond, he can go up to #8 if he feels like it.
I have no clue on the official rules of tennis, but I can personnaly attest to the fact that he carries a shitload of rackets with him when he plays (I saw him play a invitational type match in Mpls. a few years back and saw him change rackets a couple times).
Which one he decides on choosing is only known by him.
I didn’t see someone come out and re-string his racket when he broke it, but wouldn’t be surprised if he did have a guy who only did this.
What I saw him doing was fiddling around with his bag 'o rackets and choosing one that seemed better than the last one.
Maybe that’s why he’s making millions and I’m stuck with a five year old racket hitting balls against a practice wall.
Yeah, I think he carries like 6 with him at a time. But, they’re all labeled and if he can help it, he only uses his 1 and 2 rackets. He has more if he needs them, but he doesn’t like to use them. He’s been using that same racket since I was just a little tennis player.
Since he was a little kid? How old is the guy?
I thought he was in his twenties. If he played with a racket like I did in my youth, it’d be aluminum or wood.
SOB had a better racket as a kid than I could have imagined!
That’s it, I’m gonna bitch at the rents tomorrow about the kind of racket I had as a kid.
Seriously though, he has a favorite racket? I’d never heard of that but could easly believe its true.
He doesn’t have a favorite racquet. His stringer makes them all the same. You can check out this interview with his stringer, who goes to all of Sampras’ events. He strings Pete’s racquets for each match!
http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Features/9908NateFerguson.html
Check the pictures, they’re definitely stenciled.
I actually string my racquets at the same tension, but since I have a bigger racquet, it doesn’t have as big of an effect. It does allow me much more control than with looser strings. I still break strings like crazy though.
Thanks for th link Aestivalis. I’ve been fed a bunch of bullshit over the years, apparently. All the info about Sampras’s racket came from what people consider the local tennis expert at work. I will be bringing this up Monday. Thanks everybody. This makes more sense.