This morning I have spoken with Frances Davies of Bow Brand and have now set up a direct line of communications for news from the Wimbledon stringing cabin. Frances will be back at SW19 on Saturday and has agreed to supply us with some tid bits of information as the tournament progresses. So what’s the big news for stringers this year? The Isner-Mahut match was a topic of interest for me and I’ve asked Frances to find out as much information as possible regarding the stringing. We all know this match has set new records but someone is doing all the stringing for these guys and my guess is that they’ve broken stringing records as well. I think it would be interesting to see how many racquets were strung for each of these players by the time the match is complete.

So far I know that Mahut is being strung by Vaclav Smat from the Czech Repuplic and he is stringing at 21kg. I believe Isner may possible be a client of P1 now so I’m waiting for info on that. I’ve just tuned into the match and it is now tied at 68-68 in the 5th set–absolutely incredible stuff!

The GSS symposium has attracted International attendees over the last two years.  In 2009 Myoung Yong Koo and Young Hoon Lee traveled all the way from South Korea and that’s pretty impressive when you consider the calculated distance is 7,528 miles. The symposium has also had stringers and seminar leaders from Brazil, Puerto Rico, Great Britain, Canada, France, Spain and of course the United States. The goal is for the trend to continue for future symposiums.

Myoung Koo & J.C. Carpentier

Mark Gonzalez & Myoung Koo

Recent photos provided by Ron Rocchi & Todd Mobley of the Wilson stringing team, official stringers for the Australian Open

Rod Laver Arena in the background

Watching the AO matches!

Inside the AO stringing room

In case you get lost!

Aerial view of the AO complex

Rod Laver Stadium

Todd Mobley (left) & Toru Yusuki (center)

Stringing Room

Front Desk

Completed Racquet

The women’s field seems to be opening up more an more these days so who do you think will be the real news maker in 2010? Will Wozniacki surge ahead and capitalize on her 2009 successes? Will the Williams sisters prove that they’re still a force to be reckoned with? What about the return of Justine Henin? Can she dominate the womens game again?

With Rafa back in the mix in 2010 who do you think is going to be the man to watch out for this year? Will Federer finally solve the mystery that is “Rafa” or will Nadal pick up where he left off and erase any doubts that he’s the one that everyone will be chasing in 2010?

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Well we’ve done it again! Yet another new design of the GSS web site but this one proves to be more interesting than all of it’s predecessors. We’ve now opened up other ways for you to communicate with blogging tools and you’ll be seeing more photos throughout the site and (at least this is the plan) more video capabilities. So let us hear what you think about our new site design and hopefully 2010 will bring even more changes to GSS.