Becoming a member of the Yonex Stringing Team, the top twenty in the world, is for stringers similar to a footballer joining Real Madrid. Jakub Šnajdra, who otherwise weaves rockets like Markéta Vondroušová, succeeded.
“There are twenty of us. These are the same people who will be in Paris for the Olympics. A gated community where a place has been waiting for several years. I tried to get there for eight years. It’s a really prestigious team,” says Šnajdr for Seznam Zprávy. At the same time, he hopes that thanks to this he will also reach other Grand Slams. “I want to show my best. And I hope that this will lead to a longer-term cooperation. I would also like to go to the Olympics in Paris.”
Although it will be his first time at the Grand Slam, he already knows that he will be playing until January 27. What does this mean? 1/28 is the men’s final. He will therefore sail for the entire three weeks of the tournament, including the women’s final and possibly the men’s final as well.
For one of the first Czechs in this position, it will be an absolutely extraordinary moment in his career. “It’s overpaid, about four times the average wage. But it is even more a question of prestige, self marketing. So the money is actually secondary,” he explains.
He knows very well that this is all a long shot. He owes where he got to, for example, the Czech representative of Yonex, the company SportLubas. Or to Vojtěch Flégl, member of the board of the Czech Tennis Association and owner of the Spoje Praha club.
What will Schneider’s work look like in Melbourne?
It all starts with a welcome dinner, when all the knitters sit down with their bosses. Newcomers will have to introduce themselves, give a “registration fee” – for example, sing… “They all see it as a family there, a great prestige,” says the Czech representative in Melbourne.
On the second day, the knitting art of all participants will be checked. Every knitter has his own style, his own techniques. And there are plenty of them. “But we have to be united at work and all work ‘as one man’. They will want us to knit one technique. It is extremely important to guarantee a level playing field for all players.”
Šnajdr already knows that there can be as many as 650 rockets per day, an average of 500-550. Approximately 25 rockets are released per day per spinner.
“It is a demanding job where we will often work under time constraints. They want us to handle three to four rockets per hour with high quality. I had the advantage in the selection that I had a good resume, i.e. big tournaments behind me. They see my experience right away. For example, I was the head of the weavers at the Billie Jean King Cup 2021 in Prague’s O2 arena. I had to create and put together a team myself at the time.”
And how did the courtship process for Melbourne 2024 begin? It was long, already in June Šnajdr received an e-mail from the Yonnex team that he was selected for the nomination. There were 16,000 requests. And then the selection began.
They also asked the scouts how the individual candidates are doing as a person, what their experience is. In September, the Czech applicant was shortlisted and in November he learned that he had been definitively selected.
In Australia, it will not be a country for him and the other 19 colleagues. They will work from seven in the morning until late in the evening. “In the first rounds, it will be 14 hours a day, quite mentally demanding. I’ve never experienced that before,” he says.
Universal weavers
It’s very likely that it will work out for anyone. But he has already agreed with Markéta Vondroušová and other Czech players. He knows them and they trust him. By being there until the last Saturday, it may happen that I will beat even Alvarez or Djokovic.
Previously, the best players had their own private weavers, but over time even the top tennis players are giving up on this, because the quality of the work has increased extremely, according to Šnajdr. “We will be trained, we will do everything as one man. Knots, anchors and all that,” he points out.
“I can get, for example, Sabalenkova rockets from the reception. They take them from the players at the reception, write down all the information and data and hand them out to the weavers. I’ll take over the rackets, put them in the rack and start spinning. Based on the name or nickname on the racket, I will then know who I am weaving for and how many kilograms.”
The weavers have to work with the same method, but individual players have their own specifics, so the weaving is individual. Someone wants to have a string super fresh. Due to the weather, temperature and humidity, he will want it right before the game. Others don’t mind that it will be the day before.
“It may happen that if the match starts at 10 o’clock, I will start at 8:45. I know that I can manage three rackets in 45 minutes and there is still a little space left, like 15 minutes if anything… At 9:30 I give the rackets to the player. We call it ‘superfresh’. A person must be resistant, not afraid, even a little phlegmatic. Then suddenly I feel a bit like the athlete. I have to be a good manager, have the time properly scheduled, when to take a break, when not to…”
Alchemy with strings
In the information from the reception, it will also have the type of string. Some players have specific requirements. “There is an abundance of strings, I even give lectures about it. In short, the most commonly used is ‘wire’, an artificial string with a long life. But tennis players often want to combine it with a natural string. This is called a hybrid weave. The natural string gives the best shot control, while the wire gives the punch, so it’s good to combine the two. Casper Ruud, on the other hand, has a string made of two wires – round and square. This will provide him with high-quality lifted shots, topspins. Most players want both control and speed.”
And can Markéta Vondroušová, for example, have patronage and better care from the Czech knitter?
“For me to weave a racket better for someone and worse for another, that must not happen, that would be unprofessional. At home, I also knit for normal customers, just like Markéta or Djokovic,” concludes Šnajdr.
Update: We have corrected the erroneous claim that Jakub Šnajdr is the first Czech among racket spinners at a Grand Slam tournament.
