They String the Rackets at the U.S. Open

Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll look at the people who string rackets at the U.S. Open in Queens.

Many tennis fans arrive at the U.S. Open starting around 11 a.m. to catch the day’s first matches between the world’s top players, but for the team of people who string the players’ rackets, the day starts much earlier, at 7 a.m.

The official stringing team has up to 22 workers on the tournament’s busiest days, and together they will string around 7,000 rackets during the whole tournament, said Ron Rocchi, the global tour manager for Wilson Sports, the tournament’s official stringing service provider. The team is spread out between two locations on the grounds: one in Arthur Ashe Stadium and another above the Wilson store near Louis Armstrong Stadium.

“In this environment, you have very long hours, very demanding clients, you can make zero mistakes,” Rocchi said. “You have to repeat it every day for many days for long stretches of time, so it is both physically and mentally difficult.”

The stringers on the official team come from all over the world, including the tournament’s own backyard. Julien Klein, 41, one of the stringers, was born and raised in Flushing, Queens, and currently lives in Huntington on Long Island. He has been stringing rackets for 10 years.