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Pune’s Awaghade family legacy continues as father son duo stand official racquet stringers for Tata Open Maharashtra
Awaghade family is on duty as racquet stringer in Tata Open Maharashtra
Handwork to manual and now electronic stringing machine of tennis racquets – Awaghade family from Pune have seen these transformations of stringing tennis racquet closely.For them, it is their bread and butter and they are happy the way their business is moving forward.
“I learnt it from my father - Dadu Awaghade, he used to string badminton and tennis racquets. In 1970 it was all being done with hands, he used to string the racquet with the help of shoe sewing hook,” said Dnyaneshwar Awaghade.
Dnyanseshwar along with his son Yuvraj are the official racquet stringers at ongoing Tata Open Maharashtra at Shiv Chhatrapati sports complex. In the ongoing ATP tournament, the charge of stringing one racquet is $20.
The charges are the same for the players (national and international) at the tournament.
On a regular basis, Dnyaneshwar and Yuvraj string 18-20 racquets per day while if big tournaments are going then the number raises to 50 racquets per day.
“I started with hands then got into manual machines and now we have the electronic machine. 15-18 minutes are required to string one racquet on an electronic machine while manually it used to take 30 minutes,” added Dnyaneshwar who now owns 3 stringing machines.
For Dnyaneshwar who has been given space by Deccan Gymkhana Club to run his business was not an easy job to buy a racquet stringing machine as it costs 6-8 lakhs.
“I bought my first machine in 2008 with the financial help of bank loan, second in 2012 and now since my son is also good at the work we took one more,” added Dnyaneshwar who has worked as a racquet stringer in all the major tennis tournaments which happens in the city.
“My special regards to Hemant Bendrey, coach; Sunder Iyer, secretary, Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association; Kaustubh Shah, head of tournament operations; and Prashant Sutar, tournament director, Tata Open Maharashtra. All these people stood behind me whenever I needed any help. PYC Hindu Gymkhana has also helped me a lot,” said Dnyaneshwar who charges Rs 200 as a labour charge/per racquet.
“Rs 200 is without a string, if a player ask us for a string then the price of string bundle varies, ranging from Rs 400 to Rs1200,” added Dnyansehwar.
String tension is something which is a most important aspect of tennis racquet and getting accuracy over it is the art of a good stringer.
“Each player requires different string tension for their racquet. It is according to their style of play. Control, spin, power all these depend upon string tension,” said Dnyaneshwar.
String tension is measured in pounds (lbs) and kilograms (kg).
“For beginners in tennis, 50-pound string tension will produce better results. Indian players generally measure string tension in pounds while foreign players measure it in kilograms,” added Dnyansehwar.
23-year-old, Yuvraj started stringing racquets from the age of 13 and now he eyes to become the best racquet stringer.
“Today due to my father I am able to string racquet of World No 6 Kevin Anderson and my dream is to string racquets of World No 1 and 2. I will achieve it one day,” said Yuvraj.
What is racquet stringing
To method by which string tension is fixed in tennis racquet is called as racquet stringing.
String tension is the amount of pressure applied to string when it is getting fixed in a racquet.
The job of racquet stringer is to make racquet according to player’s choice. Once players decide to fix string tension of racquet then the role of stringer starts.
Praise from organiser
During every tournament players gives the record to the organisers about the racquet stringers and if there is no complain from players the stringer is awarded with the certificate of good performance.
“Doing good work gives us a certificate of ‘certified official stringer’, it gives us lot of confidence. We have received it after many tournaments and I hope to get it on a regular basis,” added Yuvraj.
