Walk between No.1 Court and the Aorangi practice courts, and the real work of Wimbledon never stops.
Paul Skipp strings as he speaks, and if you mention that he’s inserting a small screwdriver into a top-of-the-line tennis racquet, you’ll soon know how wrong you are.
Carlos Alcaraz only has one trusted weapon when he takes the court at WimbledonGetty“This is called a setting off awl,” said Skipp, designated head stringer of the Babolat Wimbledon stringing team.
“A-w-l. All it is, is just helping me straighten the strings. Because after doing so many racquets, you don’t want to do it with your fingers.”
As the Championships prepare to crown their latest champions, the numbers are staggering: 575 strung racquets on a Sunday, 660 on a Monday, and a total of 6,000 racquets during Wimbledon expertly fitted by a team of 21 stringers.
Skipp has been stringing for 37 years.
He was working in a sports shop near Portsmouth, then he received a random phone call in 2004, and was asked if he’d like to start working at Wimbledon.
“It was just totally out of the blue,” Skipp exclusively told talkSPORT on Thursday.
“Someone says, ‘Oh, we’ve got your name down on the list, are you interested?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, sure, who wouldn’t want to be?’ And the rest, I’d say, is history.
“Going into it, I felt sort of like, ‘I must be pretty good if I’ve made it to Wimbledon.’ And then, like anything, you get into the room and then you see so many more experienced people, and basically you’re just thrown right to the bat. So you’re just starting again.”
Two decades after that life-changing call, Skipp won’t divulge the details of the racquet tension preferences for current tour players.
But he’s been preparing intently for every day of a 2025 tournament that is approaching a two-week conclusion with Amanda Anisimova preparing to face Iga Swiatek in the women’s final on Saturday and Carlos Alcaraz meeting Jannik Sinner in the men’s on Sunday.
Paul Skipp tends to a tennis racket and has been stringing for 37 years©AELTC/David Cliff AFPEvery racquet is different and players prefer unique tensions[/caption] AFPThe stringing never stops during the two-week tournament in London[/caption]There is plenty of Skipp to judge as he and his team cater for the entire field.
“There’s somebody who’s known for having a very, very low tension – we’re talking 10 kilos,” Skipp said.
“And then we’ve got someone who’s the complete opposite and is up at 40 kilos. So it shows such a wide range.
“We’ll have players specify things, like, they want a knot tied in a certain place. They want the logo done in a certain way. So we’ll have these little quirks that they like. We obviously try and make sure that happens for them.”
Andy Chevalier, ball distribution manager for Wimbledon, highlighted 7:30 a.m. as a ‘lovely’ time when the grounds are quiet and he can put his equipment room ‘back to normal.’
While Chevalier and his crew handle 64,500 bright green Slazenger tennis balls to keep Wimbledon’s on-court action flowing nonstop, Skipp’s team balances tension minute by minute.
Behind the scenes
Skipp on how racquets are strung at Wimbledon
Skipp to talkSPORT: “They (players) come to the desk, they come with their racquet, they come with their strings, they say, ‘I’d like my racquet strung at this tension for this time.’ And we take the racquet in, cut the strings out, give it to a stringer, string the racquet. It gets the logo put on it, and then it’s held for when the player comes back to collect.“What we say is to actually string the racquet, you’re probably looking at about 17 to 20 minutes. That’s our time frame we can work comfortably with. “One of the biggest things we have to deal with is the management of the workload. Making sure we get all the racquets in, making sure they’re done in the time. So we all have to manage our workload. “It could be a time when we could have 15, 20 racquets on here just waiting to be done. And then each stringer manages their own workload to get those racquets done in the time required.”
Most racquets are brought in ahead of their scheduled use with specific requirements.
But some are rushed straight from the court in the middle of a key match, and that’s when the local expertise is prioritized.
“You’re probably looking at stringing the racquet in maybe 12 minutes or so,” Skipp said.
“Trying to get it back to the player, back to the court, in about 20 minutes.
“We’re right next to No.1 Court. So that will just be run in by one of the court coverers. … We get a notification that the racquet’s coming in, we can be prepared.
“Racquet comes in and then it’s just like, quick cut, quick string, quick logo. And then we have people who will run it back to get it to the player.”
Perfect flowers, fancy outfits and start-and-stop lines capture the essence of tradition-obsessed Wimbledon.
But what really makes The Championships is the system within the system, as a sports village in south west London supports tennis superstars with global appeal.
When Fritz advanced from the first round to the semifinals, the 27-year-old from California often held up a bright-orange racquet to the London sky.
x@therqtstringerSkipp reached 10,000 racquets on his machine and had ‘no issues’[/caption] x@therqtstringerHe was honoured for his stringing technique[/caption]Someone had to professionally string that racquet – and someone has to string all 6,000 racquets that hit all 64,500 balls.
“People know people’s reputation and quality,” Skipp said.
“I would say for a team this size that we all get on quite well together.”
As he speaks, yellow strings are tightened and spaced within a racquet that rests inside a machine.
The awl darts around, then is set aside until it’s needed again.
“We’re giving them (the players) the tools to go and ply their trade, and they need to be correct,” Skipp said.
Steps are washed clean near an empty Hill.
On Court 18, white lines are redrawn and green grass is swept.
Centre Court is hours away from it’s showpiece occasions but earlier this week as talkSPORT were shown around, Skipp’s ‘office’ – racquets hang on a wall, and yet another racquet stood patiently in line, waiting to be finished on Skipp’s machine.
“I don’t know whether we call this the home of tennis, but it’s certainly the home of tennis in the UK,” Skipp said.
“The comeback this year is always special, and it sort of just bookends the grass season. We’ve gone through all that and now you’re here, you’re the big one. It is exciting to be part of it.”
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