By Cheryl Jones and Mark Winters
What would a fellow from Colorado be doing at Roland Garros? If he were Josh Newton, he’d most likely be found in the well-hidden underground stringing facility at this revered venue. He’s a stringer for Babolat. He’s the guy who makes certain the likes of Rafael Nadal has their best racquets strung with the finest appropriate fiber that Babolat has to offer.
The area around Boulder and Denver – (a bit south of Boulder) – isn’t known to be a hotbed of tennis action; a bit of amateur tennis is played, but absolutely nothing in the way of professional tournaments. In the United States, the hotbed is likely equally divided between California and Florida, with smatterings pretty much everywhere else.
Tennis was a favorite pastime of Newton and he played for the University of Colorado’s tennis team in Boulder. He realized that he couldn’t hope to be a professional player, but he loved the game, and wanted to find something that was connected. He began stringing about ten years ago and has been working exclusively for Babolat for the past seven. This year, at Roland Garros, he’s the number one stringer for the French company that has been hovering at the top of most every player’s “gotta have it” list in the racquet and string category for a very long time.
Looking at a perfectly strung racquet is satisfying for most of us who crave symmetry in our lives. Much like a weaver of cloth, Newton carefully constructs a pattern that is both utilitarian and unique, depending on the player’s preference. He said that approximately 35% of the racquets he strings are a hybrid that utilizes at least two types of fiber and depending on the pattern utilized, it takes him start to finish, about fifteen minutes to complete the actual stringing and another five minutes to straighten the strings so the racquet is perfect enough for a magazine advertisement photo. (He admitted having finished a racquet in as little as twelve minutes when a player needed a re-stringing during a match.)
When Pierre Babolat created the first racquet strings that were then made of natural gut, it was 1875. Originally, the “guts” were fashioned for use with violins, cellos, and other “stringed” instruments. The little factory was and still is in Lyon, France and, surprisingly those strands were not made of “catgut”, but beef or sheep intestines carefully sliced to have strength and longevity when they dried.
(Catgut is a misnomer. The word’s use to describe the “string” actually can be traced to buckets that were filled with unusable animal intestines and they were left at the end of the day for the many stray cats who waited near the factory exits for any tidbit of nourishment they could find, evidently finding the guts to be a suitable meal. And it fits right in with the “waste not, want not” world that is these days part of a “Reduce, Recycle of Reuse” theme. It’s likely there are no end of the day buckets any more, but perhaps a few cats still roam the factory grounds with high hopes of a free meal.)
Most of Babolat’s original business was producing just strings. It’s not just gut anymore, but an array of synthetic products that can be used by top recreational players as well as those who are just learning the game. In 1994, after expanding their retail market to other countries in Europe they decided to become a total tennis company. Racquets were exported to Japan and later to the United States and finally with a big push in 2000, their entire array of products became available to anyone who could afford to treat him or herself to the “top of the line”. Professional players don’t carry around unlimited numbers of racquets. But, according to Newton most have eight or so, just in case. The just in case could mean a broken string, a broken frame, or worst of all a pesky court that unwittingly became a chopping block, ala Marat Safin. (It’s always good to have a spare or two, lest there be an epidemic of chopping block appearances on court.)
The internationally recognized “King of Clay”, Rafael Nadal uses a Babolat Pure Aero Decima racquet that was especially designed as a tribute to his ten wins at Roland Garros. (This time out he is going for another record. He wants to win his eleventh Coupe des Mousquetaires, and fill yet another page or two in the record books that tally wins in the Grand Slams, and especially Roland Garros.)
Newton strings Nadal’s racquets here in Paris. Nadal along with others at Roland Garros have used more than 67,000 meters of string. (Just imagine a piece of string that encircles the earth more than one and a half times. That’s a lot of string and a good deal of expertise is required to keep it properly stretched and woven to spec.)
(On the morning of our visit to the Babolat stringing room on the lower level of the Roland Garros Tennis Club in the Place des Mousquetaires, the number of racquets strung during this tournament had reached 5,564. Newton admitted that it was the highest that had ever been strung at Roland Garros and at any other Grand Slam tournament.)
When asked about other tournaments where his experience is in use, he named only one tournament in the United States – Cincinnati. Most of the other US tournaments have sponsor ties with companies such as Wilson or Head. Because of these agreements the technicians like Newton who work for the Babolat brand are not asked to participate. But, that doesn’t diminish the company’s presence as many, many players have chosen to use Babolat equipment exclusively.
The final match-ups for the men’s draw have been decided. On Sunday, Rafael Nadal will face Dominic Thiem. Friday was a men’s tennis delight. In the opening act, Dominic Thiem of Austria defeated Italian, Marco Cecchinato 7-5, 7-6, 6-1. It turned out to be the match to watch if it was excitement one was looking for. However, if it was star power, my money is always on the court where Rafael Nadal is playing. He virtually crushed Argentinian, Juan Martin Del Potro in two hours and fourteen minutes. The first set was engaging at 6-4 in Nadal’s favor, but the second and third sets were a ho hum, 6-1, 6-2. Nadal will try for his eleventh title here on Sunday and Thiem will do his best to make the match competitive, and maybe even scratch out a gutsy win.
For the record, Thiem uses a Babolat racquet. It’s called Pure Strike 98 and those who are sincerely interested in the minutest details will have to check the various tennis equipment websites for the specifics on all the players’ racquets. Everyone has the option of choosing a racquet and just how he or she wants it to be strung. How it actually performs is in the hands of the person who is actually holding the racquet, and not in what Nadal or Thiem are able to do with their personal choices.
