Instructions for stringing unknown frames now available on-line

Illustrated instructions for determining how to string unknown frames are now on-line for USRSA members at RacquetTECH.com. To gain access, log into the member section of the site and go to the Special Stringing Instructions in the reference section.

This information was previously available only in The Stringer's Digest.

Around-the-World (ATW) stringing instructions now available on-line

Illustrated instructions for the basic USRSA-approved Around-the-World (ATW) stringing method are now on-line for USRSA members at RacquetTECH.com. To gain access, log into the member section of the site and go to the Special Stringing Instructions in the reference section.

This information was previously available only in The Stringer's Digest.

Although there are a couple of different ATW methods available to the stringer, the USRSA-approved ATW method does not require any special tools, and is adaptable to virtually any racquet.

50/50 stringing instructions now on-line

Illustrated instructions for the 50/50 stringing method are now on-line for USRSA members at RacquetTECH.com. To gain access, log into the member section of the site and go to the Special Stringing Instructions in the reference section.

This information was previously available only in The Stringer's Digest.

2009 Mercedes Cup pro log now available

Thanks to Tom Parry and the Pacific stringing team, we now have added the pro equipment listings for the 2009 Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, Germany. These 251 listings bring our total pro equipment listings to 9,276. And this is just one of many great reasons to become a USRSA member.

If you are already a member, check out the pro equipment listing here.

Stringing instructions updated for PowerAngle racquets

We've updated the stringing instructions for all PowerAngle racquets, and included the specific instructions for the new PowerAngle Pro. Note that there are a couple of significant differences in the new stringing instructions, so make certain to review them before doing your next PowerAngle restring job. USRSA members can find the instructions on the "specials" page, which is linked off of the main page for the Digest on-line.

Prince 6000 video posted

We've posted the overview video for the new Prince 6000 stringing machine in our Machines section (for USRSA members only). As always, we're actively working with Prince and other stringing machine manufacturers to get as much information as possible available, so you'll have access 24/7 -- not just during "business" hours.

2009 Roland Garros pro log now available

Thanks to the Tecnifibre stringing team, we now have added the pro equipment listings for the 2009 Roland Garros in France. These 1,784 listings bring our total pro equipment listings to 9,025. And this is just one of many great reasons to become a USRSA member.

If you are already a member, check out the pro equipment listing here.

2009 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix pro log now available

Thanks to the Pacific stringing team, we now have added the pro equipment listings for the 2009 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart. These 230 listings (singles, doubles, and qualifying) from this WTA event bring our total pro equipment listings to 7,241. And this is just one of many great reasons to become a USRSA member.

If you are already a member, check out the pro equipment listing here.

2009 BNP Paribas Open stringing log now available

Thanks to David, Casey, Doug, George, Mark, Dan, and Dave at Star Stringing, the pro stringing log is now available from the 2009 BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. There are 449 new records covering 275 players and coaches, bringing the total number of stringing log entries to 7,011. As always, the pro equipment log is for USRSA members only, so if you're not already a member, join today!

Racquet Selection Map now available on-line

The popular and handy Racquet Selection Map is now available in an enhanced on-line version for USRSA members. With a full, sortable table of available racquets, and a larger, zoomable racquet map, the Racquet Selector Map on-line is definitely easier to use. Plus, both the usable tips and FAQ have been expanded, and there are even links to previous years' Racquet Selection Maps.

USRSA members can check it out in the Tools menu, or at:

usrsa.com/members/tools/racquet_map.html

Updated: String Specs tool

USRSA members will be interested to learn that the String Specs tool has been upgraded. It's still sortable, but now the sort is better at handling columns of numbers. Also, the "Company" and "String" columns have been combined into one for display purposes, although you can still search for company and/or string separately.

Nerds will note that while upgrading the String Specs tool, we also upgraded the menu system, tab system, and data table sorting routines site-wide, but with any luck, non-nerds won't notice a thing.

Revamping our on-line calculators

Along with the general move to freshen up the site, we've redone virtually all of our JavaScript calculators to make use of the object literal format, to avoid namespace collisions with other JavaScript elements on our pages.

This in turn has allowed us more easily to combine related tools so they appear on one page, such as the four tension tools (constant-pull to lockout converter, lockout to constant-pull converter, pounds to kilos converter, and the tension estimator) and the two twist weight tools (the calculator and the estimator). The pages for these tools also have a nice tabbed interface for selecting your calculator of interest.

As always, of course, these on-line calculators are available to USRSA members only. If you're not a member, join today!

2008 Masters Cup stringing log now available

Thanks to the PACIFIC stringing team, we have the stringing log for the 2008 Masters Cup in Shanghai. USRSA members can search our Pro Equipment Log database, and sort the results. The 220 records in this stringing log bring our total entries to 6,562 in our pro log database. If you're not a USRSA member, join now to see this great data. Of course, there are many other reasons to join!

Expanded pro log for the 2007 Acura Classic

A new data management tool (Panorama database program, from Provue) has allowed us to make available the full stringing log from the 2007 Acura Classic, which was handled by our own Dave Bone and our trusty Babolat Star 5. Previously, we'd published an overview of the stringing log, but with our new capabilities we've replaced the summary with the full log. For those interested in such things, Panorama also allowed us to make available the full U.S. Open 2008 stringing log, which arrived in "crosstab" format from Wilson. Using Panorama and some devious data manipulations, we were able to "de-crosstabify" the data to fit our report template.

The bottom line is that there are now 160 more data points in the pro stringing log database for USRSA members to search and sort.

Tennis player birthdays

We've augmented our list of tennis player birthdates significantly, adding 11,143 new tennis player birthdates to our searchable listing. This brings the total to 29,383 tennis players for whom we have birthdate information. Check it out.

U.S. Open 2008 pro equipment listing

Thanks to Ron Rocchi and the Wilson Stringing Team, we have added 2,156 new pro equipment listings to our Pro Equipment Log, which is available to USRSA members. This represents an expansion by 53 percent to our previous -- and already extensive --  pro equipment listings.

This gives us a total of 6,158 player equipment listings, most of which show the racquet make and model, string make(s) and model(s), and tension(s) for each player, as well as the name of the event and the year for that equipment combination.

The listing is searchable, and the results are sortable.

New Star 3, Star 4, and RDC videos

We've taken the 52-minute Babolat video that covers the Star 3, Star 4, and Racquet Diagnostic Center (RDC) and split it up into targeted sections. USRSA members will find these videos on the Machines page (in the members-only section), and on the Calibration page (ditto).

Updated: Racquet Mass Mover calculator

We've updated the Racquet Mass Mover calculator to include First Moment, both for the starting specs and for the racquet with all changes to mass and mass distribution.

We also reformatted the calculator in the hopes of making it easier to use and understand. Check it out!

Crawford Lindsey on strings

We've added a link to the audio of a telephone interview Crawford Lindsey did for the New York Times back in August 2004. Here, Crawford discusses strings and stringbed stiffness.

Here the audio here.

(USRSA members only — membership and site registration required.)

2007 U.S. Open players log additions

Thanks to the Wilson Stringing team, we've added 10 players from the 2007 U.S. Open to the Pro Equipment Log listing. This is in the members-only section, so you must be a USRSA member to view it and the other thousands of pro log listings.