--- title: Meet The Racket Stringers Keeping The U.S. Open Running | TIME canonical: https://time.com/video/KZTxC8S5/ og:title: Meet The Racket Stringers Keeping The U.S. Open Running og:url: https://time.com/video/KZTxC8S5/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/KZTxC8S5/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet The Racket Stringers Keeping The U.S. Open Running twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/KZTxC8S5/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Meet The Racket Stringers Keeping The U.S. Open Running > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Meet The Racket Stringers Keeping The U.S. Open Running [Watch (HLS stream): Meet The Racket Stringers Keeping The U.S. Open Running](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KZTxC8S5.m3u8) (2:17)  _Published 2026-09-01_ --- Sep 1, 2026 3:51 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [A Blimp Crashed at the U.S. Open](/video/HUmU2iVa/) ### A Blimp Crashed at the U.S. Open [Watch Flavia Pennetta Win U.S. Open](/video/tBzSCAab/) ### Watch Flavia Pennetta Win U.S. Open [The U.S. Open Racquet Stringers](/video/ZByAprba/) ### The U.S. Open Racquet Stringers --- ## Transcript One day. I left 3:00 in the morning and I was here already at five. Where'd you sleep? In the room. Don't tell anybody. And security kicked me out. The unsung, unsung heroes of the US open are the racket stringers. The work they do is the reason the ball bounces off of players rackets to fly all over the court. Stringers work around the clock opening shop in the early morning hours, pulling strings and setting tension through the last matches late at night. A single stringer may work on upwards of 40 rackets a day. This is my 21st U.S. open. How many rackets a year do you think you string? Oh, I don't want to think about. Rackets are dropped off at the stringing room in the bowels of Arthur Ashe Stadium by the player. Warm up, Jim. They're. Old strings are cut out, and runners deliver the frames strung at this second location across the way here at the Wilson store. It's like Santa's workshop for tennis rackets. Players give stringers their specs. Tighter strings give players better control. Less tension offers more power. I insert the string and I pull the attention you see. And it showed me it's 23.5, and I lock in this position when all string bed is finished, it has some tension, and they know what they can do with these strings, with this tension, what they can hit and how they hit. They get higher kick or they get something more power, more penetration from the ball string. Life has its perks. Full timers like Filatov get to travel the world to places like Paris and China and Miami throughout the year, but these are no paid vacations. The job is intense and monotonous. Stringers spend hours on their feet. They can get blisters, carpal tunnel, arthritis. All players doing special evaluation, trainers, everything with us. We stay in some busy days. If I can say like 15 hours. Okay. Even if you sit down and stand, sit down and stand a little bit. Walk. Nobody develop how you have to move. Filatov drunk for all the stars. Roger, Rafa, Serena the rest. What do you. Love about this job? I live in New York. 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