Category: Badminton Racquet Stringing

  • How does Badminton Racquet Tension Impact String Performance?

    Marcus F. Gideon
    Elite level badminton players, like Marcus F. Gideon can string their racquets at tension levels that would not help recreational players.
    The vast majority of adult recreational badminton players should be stringing their racquets in the 20 to 24 lb. range. This tension provides the best combination of power and control for almost everybody. The exceptions are athletes and children.

    Obviously, children and smaller juniors may need the string bed to provide some additional power so that they can hit the shuttle all the way to the back of the opposing court. In this case we string the racquet looser to provide more power. This is why many children’s badminton racquets come pre-strung from the factory at tension levels below 20 lbs.

    At the other end of the spectrum are elite level athletes who do not need help from the string bed. These athletes can hit the shuttle corner to corner on the backhand side without any trouble. In fact, these players are so powerful that they may have trouble controlling their shots if the racquet is strung at factory tension. For these players, we string at higher tensions.

    So when you hear somebody say that badminton racquets should be strung looser for more power and tighter for more control, it is important to remember that only the top 10 per cent (or less) of badminton players will actually experience the benefits of more control when stringing racquets tighter.

    For most players, over-tensioning the string bed will actually be a negative experience because it will reduce the depths they can reach with the shuttle on the opposing court. We say this because in badminton, depth equals success. Competitive players who cannot achieve consistent depth under pressure will lose more often than they win.

    Beyond the obvious question of power, is the question of how tension impacts string performance in other ways.

    For example, it is well known that strings under high tension break more easily than strings at lower tension. So most recreational badminton players who string at high tension will not only be losing more often than they would at lower tension, they will also be paying more to restring their racquets more often.

    How fun is that?

    Finally, it is important to consider how tension impacts string performance. An example of this is Yonex ™ BG80, one of the best badminton strings in the world.

    What makes BG80 an excellent string is its playability. Strung at the correct tension, BG80 offers an excellent blend of power on smashes and touch on drop shots. String it too tight, however, and it loses both of these qualities.

    In our shop (Racquet Network), where we string about 2000 racquets a year, we are constantly disappointed to see players pay good money for this excellent string and then tension the life out of it. We wonder what the point is? Why buy a good string if you are going to string it so tight that it cannot perform to its maximum potential?

    The vast majority of recreational badminton players should be playing with 20 to 24 lbs of pressure. BG80 and most other Yonex strings perform optimally in that range. So there is no benefit to string any tighter than that.

  • What You Get for Your Money

    Players often ask: “Why do basement stringers charge less than store stringers?”

    The simple answer is options.

    Basement stringing customers save money because basement racquet stringers offer fewer options. Basement stringers can stack up a bunch of discount stringing racquets for five or six days and then bang them all out at the same time without having to stop and reset custom machine tension and custom string options like custom racquet stringers do.

    Custom racquet stringers, by contrast, offer many options. They typically carry a large inventory of string and can offer many more precision tension options than basement stringers with budget machines.

    Every racquet they string takes more time. It is a more careful and deliberate process. Professional racquet technicians don’t just bang out custom string jobs. They are required to stop and check the custom spec sheet before starting every racquet.

    Then…

    They strip the racquet of all string and head tape. They clean the frame, remove all tape residue and inspect it. They check to see if any grommets are missing and formulate a repair plan. Often, at this point, they have to stop and call the customer to consult with them about how they want their grommets repaired.

    Once they have mapped out the road ahead, including repairs, they set up the string and the tension on the machine and start weaving. When they are done weaving and repairing, they have another stringer verify the weave and the repairs to ensure that everything is perfect. If any flaws are found in the weave or the repairs, they back up and correct everything before tying off.

    Once the racquet is done, they enter the notes in the customer file and notify the customer by email. All of this takes time and expertise, but it guarantees that they meet customer specifications exactly.

    Finally, convenience is a major factor in stringing costs. Basement stringers often have very limited hours. Customers have very narrow windows during which they can pick up or drop off their racquets while store stringers are open long hours. As a result, pick up and drop off are generally more convenient with store stringers than with basement stringers.

    In short, store stringing is a professional stringing service with a premium price while basement stringing offers fewer options at a lower price. Here in Calgary, Racquet Network offers both stringing options to their customers.

    Racquet Network’s Custom Stringing vs Discount Stringing Table

    CUSTOM DISCOUNT
    String options Choose from all strings None
    Colour options Choose from all colours None
    Tension options Choose from full range None
    Grommet repairs Minor repairs included free None
    Head tape removal Included free None
    Frame cleaning Included free None
    Service Options
    • online option
    • in store option
    Turnaround options
    • one hour
    • one day
    • one week
    • one week
    Notifications By email None
    Early pickup options Permitted Not permitted
    Warranty options Two weeks (labour only) None
    Sponsorship credits Automatic with online orders None
  • How Tight Should I String My Badminton Racquet?

    How Tight Should I String My Badminton Racquet?Choosing the best string tension for your badminton frame is often a case of choosing between trade offs. For example, stringing at a racquet’s maximum tension will increase your ability to control the power of the string bed, but it will also decrease string life. On the other hand, stringing the same racquet at minimum recommended tension will increase its power and extend the life of the string, but it will reduce your ability to control drop shots.

    Printed somewhere on the frame of every badminton racquet is a recommended tension range. For example, a typical range for a Yonex badminton racquet is 17-24 lbs. So the lowest recommended tension on this racquet is 17 lbs while the maximum recommended range is 24 lbs. Stringing below 17 lbs will result in a string bed that is so loose that it will loose its effectiveness. Stringing above 24 lbs will put the frame under enormous pressure and may may result in frame collapse.

    Benefits and Trade-Offs of High Tension

    Here is a list of the benefits and trade offs of stinging at high tension.

    BENEFITS TRADE OFFS
    – more control on drop shots – less power on drives
    – more control on net shots – less power on clears and smashes
    – makes a cool sound on hard contact – increased chances of frame breakage
    – strings do not move around – increased chances of string breakage

    Benefits and Trade-Offs of Low Tension

    Here is a list of the benefits and trade offs of stinging at low tension.

    BENEFITS TRADE OFFS
    – more power on drives – less control on drop shots
    – more power on clears and smashes – less control on net shots
    – decreased chances of frame breakage – does not make a cool sound on hard contact
    – decreased chances of string breakage – strings move around

    Choosing Factory Tension

    In general, staff at Racquet Network advise customers to string their racquets at factory recommended tension unless they have a good reason do otherwise. For example, a customer who is having trouble getting the shuttle to the back of the court on clears, may be advised to string at a lower tension to increase power. Meanwhile, another customer who is regularly hitting the shuttle out the back of the court on clearing shots may be advised to decrease the power of their racquet by stringing at a higher tension.

  • Questions to Ask Yourself About String

    Natural Gut Tennis String
    Natural Gut Tennis String

    There is no question that natural gut tennis string is the best overall tennis string for most tennis players.

    It holds tension remarkably well and over a very long period of time; this makes it a great value. It is a natural fiber taken from animals, therefore it more closely matches the materials in the human shoulder and elbow than nylons and polyesters mixed in a vat and extruded in a lab; this makes natural gut a safer and healthier choice for most athletes. And finally, because it has more elasticity than virtually all polyesters, it offers players who need it a lot more power and playability than artificial strings.

    The downside to natural gut, many players will tell you, is the price. While it may offer health benefits and environmental benefits (it is organic animal tissue), these benefits are not free. On average, natural gut costs two to three times more per racquet with than with multifilament. So for frequent string breakers, stringing with natural gut can get to be quite expensive.

    Our experience at Racquet Network is that most tennis players at the beginner and intermediate levels are satisfied with natural gut. The customers who are least satisfied with gut are men under 40 who like to pound the ball, especially on their serves. While these players probably should not be pounding serves (the harder they hit, the more they miss), they tend to do it anyway. More importantly, they like to do it. In fact, they consider pounding serves and ground strokes to be an important part of their game.

    Pounders, whether on the serve or from the baseline, go through string of all kinds a lot faster than placers (players who place the ball, rather than pound it). And the lower their skill level, the faster pounders go through string.

    This pattern of frequent string breakage is often a function of unnecessary power coupled with inconsistency. While more advanced players hit the ball in the center of the string bed on more than 80% of their shots, intermediate players hit the center of their racquet only about half of the time. When intermediate pounders hit off center, it means that the strings along the grommet line are being subjected to an extremely high amount of force and are more likely to break.

    This combination of wasted power and off-center ball strikes makes natural gut seem like an expensive choice for intermediate pounders. Players is this category tend to believe that they are better off with polyester strings than natural gut because they perceive breakage as their most important problem. The question is whether or not this is actually the case.

    Poly strings are durable. There is no question about that. A 16 gauge polyester string may last some players for years. Unfortunately, there is a downside to this durability that most players don’t realize. First, polyester strings lose power very quickly, even if the racquet is sitting in your bag doing nothing; this means that you need to restring every three or four weeks, even when you are not playing. Second, poly string is a lot stronger than most of the tissues in your shoulder and elbow; therefore if you subject both to equal amounts of stress, it is your body that will break, not the string. Finally, there are environmental costs to consider because polyester molecules take thousands of years to break down and be reabsorbed by nature.

    So while polyester strings may seem to offer a better value than organic strings, the trade offs have to be considered before that can actually be determined. Is it smart to use polyester string so that you can pound serves that end up going wide anyway? Is it smart to use a string that helps your serve but kills your volleys and ground strokes? Is it smart to choose a polyester string that will likely go dead before you have a chance to use it again?

    As any good coach will tell you, things are not always what they seem. Broken strings could be a sign that you need stronger strings or they could be a symptom of weakness in your strokes. Before you allow a broken string to knee jerk you into using strings created for professional players maybe you should consider all of the factors at play. You should also be aware of the fact that many of the pros who use poly only use it once before re-stringing their racquets and they almost never have to pay for it.

  • Most Common Stringing Mistakes

    As professional stringers, we spend several hours each week fixing problems created by amateurs. Most of the time, these errors are minor and can be fixed relatively quickly. Sometimes, however, the mistakes are fatal to life of the racquet and sometimes, sadly, the racquet breaks or cracks before we can fix it.

    With this in mind, we offer the following advice to customers who want to save a few bucks using an amateur stringer or who simply want to be loyal to their club stringer. At the very least, we encourage you to avoid stingers who do the following three things.

    1. NEVER STRING OVER MAX TENSION

    We see this all the time with badminton racquets. Players are told to string racquets at 30 lbs. even though the frame has a maximum tension of 28 lbs. written right on it. Badminton club stringers are especially bad for this. They tend to over-tension everything. The problem is that when you over-tension a new racquet, the racquet’s warranty is instantly voided. So one bad stroke and you are out $300.

    Club stingers know this. They know that one hard smash is all it takes to snap an over-tensioned frame. And they are also prepared to sell you a new one when it happens. As a matter of policy, our stringing experts won’t over-tension racquets, especially badminton racquets. That way, if something does go wrong, we can back the customer up and ensure that their racquet can be replaced under warranty.

    2. NEVER OVER-TENSION PLAYABLE STRING

    This is another common mistake we see from amateur stringers. They take very expensive and very playable string and tension all of the playability out of it. Since the whole point of spending money on a playable string is to experience its superior playability, it makes no sense to crank the tension up to maximum and end up with a string bed that’s stiff as a board.

    In a lot of cases, amateur stringers don’t really have a choice. They bought a cheap stringer on e-Bay so they could make a few bucks on the side. Do they know how to use it? Not really. Is the machine capable of precise tensioning? Not really. So they crank every racquet out at the same tension regardless. Whether or not the tension is right for the string is irrelevant. They are getting paid for stringing racquets and that’s all that really matters.

    3. NEVER STRING RACQUETS YOUR MACHINE WAS NOT DESIGNED TO STRING

    Racquets have changed a lot in the past 10 years. Stringing machines have changed a lot, too. In fact, there are many racquets today that simply cannot be strung on cheap stringing machines. Every time you string an advanced racquet on an outdated machine, you run some risks. The best case scenario is that you risk doing the job poorly. The worst case scenario: micro-cracks that translate into broken frames at some point down the road.

    At Racquet Network, racquet stringing is not a sideline. It’s not something we are doing on the side. We are professionals with professional tools. We are up-to-date on the latest technology in both racquets and string. We have manufacturer specifications for all of the latest racquets. And as members of the Yonex stringing team, we take pride in our work.

    While we cannot in good conscience recommend that you take your racquet to be strung by an amateur, we hope that the points above have at least made you aware of some of things to watch out for.

  • 3 Ways Discount Stringers Cut Corners

    STRING-INSTALLATIONYou see them everywhere, little signs cable-tied to tennis court fences or pinned to bulletin boards offering dirt cheap stringing. You see them on Craig’s List, Kijiji and a thousand other websites.

    But can you trust them? Can somebody stringing racquets in their basement really do as good a job as a professional stringer? And do you get your money’s worth?

    The answer is: possibly. If the stringer is properly trained, credibly certified and has a suitable stringing machine, he may be able to do a professional job. However, the truth is that people who string out of their basements are rarely trained or certified and rarely have suitable stringing machines.

    In fact, most people stringing out of their basements are discount stringers willing to cut every corner in order to maximize their income while charging customers the lowest possible price. As a result, quality is not their highest priority.

    LOW BUDGET STRINGING MACHINES

    While it is possible to buy a tool marketed as a “stringing machine” for a little as $300, it is not possible to get a professional stringing machine for much less than a thousand dollars. In actual fact, the starting price for a professional stringing machine with all of the attachments and accessories required to do a range of racquets and strings is about $3000. Anything less and you will be buying a tool that can do some racquets, but not all racquets, some strings, but not all strings.

    This is where most discount stringers cut their first corner. They buy a cheap machine or an old machine that is not capable of safely or effectively stringing modern racquets and then use it anyway. It doesn’t matter to them that stringing new racquets on outdated machines is often like trying to fit square pegs into round holes. It doesn’t matter to them that they may damage their customer’s frame. Maintaining a low price is their only concern and an outdated machine helps them do exactly that.

    CHEATING TO SAVE TIME

    As anyone who has ever used a cheap stringing machine can tell you, they are often painful to use. Compared to the computerized precision and speed of professional stringing machines, table-top and drop-weight tension machines are extremely slow and embarrassingly imprecise. In fact, they are so hard to use that it will often take an hour or two just to do a bad string job. So in order to save time, stringers who use them will often cut corners by tensioning only one side of the racquet. This turns a bad string job into a terrible string job.

    Professional machines, by contrast, are extremely precise and efficient. They allow tensioning down to one-tenth of a pound and they have rotating turntables which make it easy for the stringer to properly tension every string without damaging it. This allows professional stringers to focus on quality rather than corner-cutting.

    NO PARTS IN STOCK

    Another area where discount stringers cut corners is in the parts department. In general, they have none. Most carry only string and tend to offer very little in the way of selection. While a professional stringer will replace a split grommet or advise you to replace a damaged bumper guard, discount stringers will tell you (falsely) that these part don’t matter. The truth is, these parts do matter. They are installed in racquets for a reason. When they are damaged, they should be replaced. And if they can’t be replaced, the racquet should be replaced.

    So keep all of this in mind the next time you see one of these discount stringer signs cable-tied to the gate of your local tennis court. Racquet stringing is like everything else in life; you get what you pay for. If somebody offers to sell you a diamond ring for ten cents, chances are you will get a ring that isn’t worth a dime.

  • 3 Ways to Extend String Life

    BROKEN HAMMEREven hammers break. Strong as the they are, they will all break eventually. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that racquet strings break too.

    Like hammers, they can break when they are old and worn out after lots and lots of pounding or they can break when they are new, fresh out of the package. They probably shouldn’t. But if you hit a hammer hard enough the first time you use it, a hammer might break too.

    So what can you do to prolong the life of your strings and get the most out of your investment?

    Step One is to learn to play rather than pound the ball. Contrary to the way some players think, hitting every shot as hard as you can is not the right way to play any racquet sport. Hard shots have their place but rarely will they make up more than 10% of your total shots in a game or match.

    Even serves should not generally be pounded. In tennis, a first serve might be hit hard, but the second serve should not be. The second serve should be a spin serve which is rarely hit with 100% of your full force. Even the first serve, which is often flatter and harder than the second serve, rarely sees top players hitting the ball as hard at they can.

    BROKEN GROMMETSStep Two in preserving the life of your strings is to take care of your frame. Split or broken grommets are string eaters. When they are whole, they work to prevent the string from touching the sharp edges of the graphite. When they split or break, the graphite cuts through the string like a hot knife through butter.

    Step Three in preserving the life of your strings is to string at lower tension. While it is true that constant friction at the crosses may cause the strings to saw through each other, modern materials and engineering minimize this. Strings today are designed to glide easily over each other. As a result, they are much more likely to break when exposed to extreme force under high tension.

    Players today have more choices than at any point in history. They can play with natural guts, synthetic guts, polyamides, polyesters, co-polys and more. In our store alone we carry more than 150 types of string. But all of these myriad choices have one thing in common; like hammers, if you hit them hard enough, they will break.

    So as carpenters take care of their tools, players must take care of their strings. No self-respecting carpenter swings as hard as he can at every nail. And no self-respecting tennis player should swing as hard as he can at every serve. The key is to apply force skillfully in order to maximize the effectiveness of the tool.


    TEST PREPARATION

    The following questions may appear on tests related to this article. Use them to test your reading comprehension and prepare for the CERTIFIED EXPERTS TEST – RACQUET SERVICE.

  • Natural Gut for Squash & Badminton

    Natural Gut Squash StringAlthough many tennis players are familiar with natural gut strings, squash and badminton players tend to know very little about them. Those who have heard about natural gut presume that it is too fragile to use for squash or badminton.

    This is not the case at all. In fact, natural gut is equally as durable as some of the best synthetic multifilaments. It also has the benefit of maintaining its elasticity and power much longer than any synthetic. And as a natural, organic, fully biodegradable product, natural gut offers environmental benefits unmatched by any artificial string.

    “I’m not a frequent string breaker in any racquet sport,” admits Brent Johner, owner and founder of Calgary-based Racquet Network, the largest racquet store in Alberta, “but I was a little leery about using natural gut for squash even though it is all I ever use for tennis.”\

    Like many people, Johner thought natural gut would break too often, especially when used for squash. He expected to be restringing every week or two.

    “This has not been the case,” he says. “Natural gut performed far beyond my expectations in squash. It took me about two hours to become accustomed to it. Once I broke it in, I fell in love with it. The power it gives me is consistent from week to week, which is good. And the touch is amazing. I feel it especially on my cross court lobs and semi-lobs. I don’t have to swing very hard at all and the ball goes exactly where I want it to go.”

    Natural gut is very stiff when it first goes into a squash frame, he explains. It takes a couple of hours for the crosses to break in. After that, the string bed softens up and the user can begin to experience the benefits. Badminton, on the other hand, requires no break-in time, says Johner. It is ready to play with immediately.

    “After my experience with natural gut in squash, I was expecting a break-in period for badminton as well,” he says, “but that was not the case at all. It was game-ready from the very first shot.”

    What surprised him most was the power offer by natural gut badminton string. “I had been using Yonex BG66 because I needed a power boost on my backhand drives. The switch to natural gut immediately jacked up the power of my backhands. I feel it has improved every shot I make. This string bed is so lively and consistent.”

    Durability has not been an issue for this frequent player either. “I’m not a frequent string breaker by any stretch of the imagination,” says Johner. “So I may not be the best person to ask about this issue. However, I can say that I play or practice squash six hours a week and play badminton two hours per week and have not had a string break in the month since I install natural gut in my squash and badminton frames.”

    Over that same period, he notes, he has also not noticed any loss of tension or decrease in power. “My kids are happier, though,” he says. “They always give me a hard time when I string my racquets and put the old nylon strings in the garbage. Now that I’m using natural gut, they can’t complain.”

    In addition to its obvious environmental advantages, natural gut also maintains tension a lot longer than synthetic strings. While player can expect to get about eight hours of play out of synthetic strings before they go dead, they will get about 20 hours of play out of natural gut.


    TEST PREPARATION

    The following questions may appear on tests related to this article. Use them to test your reading comprehension and prepare for the CERTIFIED EXPERTS TEST – RACQUET SERVICE.

  • How Long Should Badminton Strings Last?

    Badminton Strings Break
    Badminton Strings Break
    One of the frustrating truths about badminton string is that it breaks. Even the best string in the best racquet strung by the best stringer on the best machine in the world can break the first time you use it.

    It sucks, but it’s true. Strings are strings. They are not steel beams. They are not indestructible. Strings are made of string and strings break.

    The other unfortunate truth about string is that when it breaks customers usually want to blame somebody. If a string breaks the first time they use it, most will blame the stringer.

    It doesn’t matter that the string was installed correctly. It doesn’t matter that the stringer was not even present when the string broke, many customers will assume that the stringer must have done something wrong.

    As stringers, we can tell you that this is enormously frustrating for everyone involved.

    There are many reasons that string will break. Very few of these reasons have anything to do with the guy (or gal) who strings your racquet.

    Nicks Caused by Smashes

    With badminton string, one of the leading culprits of breakage comes from nicks caused by hitting the skirt of the shuttle on smashes. It only takes one smash to put a near fatal nick in your string. A few shots later, the nick becomes a break. As a result, the string will appear to break on a clear, a lift or even a drop shot, when in fact most of the damage was done on an earlier smash.

    Nicks During Storage

    Another common cause of string damage occurs when players store their racquets in their racquet bags. While players should keep their racquets separate from everything else in their bags, some players have bags that are too small. So their racquet strings end up being accidentally damaged by keys, phones, shoes and other items crammed into in their racquet bags.

    Choosing the Wrong String

    Another culprit often responsible for early string breakage has to do with poor consumer choices. Contrary to popular belief, not all strings are designed to work with nylon shuttles. In fact, most high end strings are too thin to use with nylon shuttles. They are designed for use with feather shuttles and customers who choose to use them with nylon shuttles do so at their own risk.

    Power vs. Durability

    Far and away the biggest cause of early badminton string breakage, however, is greed. Some players can never have enough power. They might be six feet tall and have incredibly powerful smashes, but they still want more. So while they should be choosing strings that are thick and durable enough to withstand their power, they instead opt for thinner strings that offer even more power. The result, not surprisingly, is broken string and disappointed customers.

    Stinger Errors

    Before you blame the stringer and question his/her professionalism, please consider everything we have said above. Stringers can and do make mistakes. Equipment sometimes fails. However, a well-trained stringer knows what to watch for and rarely does anything that will decrease string life. Indeed, our policy when these uncommon mistakes are made is to stop, cut the strings out and start again. We would rather do a racquet twice than risk being blamed for causing early breakage.



    TEST PREPARATION


    The following questions may appear on tests related to this article. Use them to test your reading comprehension and prepare for the CERTIFIED EXPERTS TEST – RACQUET SERVICE.

  • Badminton Racquet Tension Trade-Offs

    tensionChoosing the best string tension for your badminton frame is often a case of choosing between trade offs.

    For example, stringing at a racquet’s maximum tension will increase your ability to control the power of the string bed, but it will also decrease string life. On the other hand, stringing the same racquet at minimum recommended tension will increase its power and extend the life of the string, but it will reduce your ability to control drop shots.

    Printed somewhere on the frame of every badminton racquet is a recommended tension range. For example, a typical range for a Yonex badminton racquet is 17-24 lbs. So the lowest recommended tension on this racquet is 17 lbs while the maximum recommended range is 24 lbs. Stringing below 17 lbs will result in a string bed that is so loose that it will loose its effectiveness. Stringing above 24 lbs will put the frame under enormous pressure and may may result in frame collapse.

    Benefits and Trade-Offs of High Tension

    Here is a list of the benefits and trade offs of stinging at high tension.

    \r\n

    BENEFITS TRADE OFFS
    – more control on drop shots – less power on drives
    – more control on net shots – less power on clears and smashes
    – makes a cool sound on hard contact – increased chances of frame breakage
    – strings do not move around – increased chances of string breakage

    Benefits and Trade-Offs of Low Tension

    Here is a list of the benefits and trade offs of stinging at low tension.

    BENEFITS TRADE OFFS
    – more power on drives – less control on drop shots
    – more power on clears and smashes – less control on net shots
    – decreased chances of frame breakage – does not make a cool sound on hard contact
    – decreased chances of string breakage – strings move around

    Choosing Factory Tension

    In general, staff at Racquet Network advise customers to string their racquets at factory recommended tension unless they have a good reason do otherwise. For example, a customer who is having trouble getting the shuttle to the back of the court on clears, may be advised to string at a lower tension to increase power. Meanwhile, another customer who is regularly hitting the shuttle out the back of the court on clearing attempts may be advised to decrease the power of their racquet by stringing at a higher tension.


    TEST PREPARATION


    The following questions may appear on tests related to this article. Use them to test your reading comprehension and prepare for the CERTIFIED EXPERTS TEST – RACQUET SERVICE.