Chief stringer at the Swiss Indoors: String maestro works up to 18 hours for tennis stars

As a rule, the professionals bring between three and five clubs at a time – at least once a day. “We string between 60 and 80 rackets per day, each one taking about 15 minutes,” says Milovanovic. He and his four employees regularly work 16 to 18 hours a day, starting work around 7 a.m. But this Thursday, the Basel resident experienced something new: “Today I came to the hall for the first time in 24 years at 9:30 am.”

Various quirks make days unplanned

Milovanovic’s colleague Timo intervenes and puts new strings on a racket. “You never know when they will come,” he says. Ruud likes it when his rackets are strung just before his match. Auger-Aliassime has a different routine: “He always puts them at about the same distance. On Wednesday he played quite early so he asked us to string the rackets in the evening.

Why these different oddities? Even when the rackets are not used, the strings lose tension, mainly due to temperature fluctuations. “Most people prefer to bring their rackets as close as possible to their matches.” Playing late and practicing in the morning, it is not unusual for Milovanovic’s team to have to string the same rackets twice a day.

4.4 kilometers of strings in seven tournament days

Swiss shooting star Dominic Stricker (21), who travels to the tournaments with six to eight rackets, usually only allows team member Markus Leuenberger and his father to play. He also puts his trust in Milovanovic’s team at the Swiss Indoors: “For the first three days, Stricker had his rackets strung elsewhere, then he suddenly handed them over here.”

The consumption of strings is high. It’s 4.4 kilometers in the first seven days (11 meters per club)! Milovanovic, who runs his own shop in Allschwil BL, reveals that the record for strung rackets is likely to be broken at this year’s Swiss Indoors: “Last year there were 474 (in 10 days, editor), now we’re almost there 400.” And what happens to the remains and broken strings? “I would make toothpicks out of it, of course only with the remaining strings, not with the played strings,” is Milovanovic’s vision.

Artist Milovanovic prints balls with Federer’s face

He has already put another into practice. He is only one of two people in the world who prints images on tennis balls. Whether it is Federer, Nadal, Wawrinka or Alcaraz, he has them all. Sometimes even on balls that he personally received from the players and were signed by hand. Sometimes he sells them, sometimes he gives them away or donates the income he earns from them.

How it works? “I bought an egg painting machine and converted it.” With new software, he managed to print the heads on the balls after thousands of attempts. He admits: “I was almost desperate and ready to give up.” But he succeeded, the tennis stars celebrate his felt balls.

He received the most special assignment from former world number 1 Martina Hingis (43) and her ex-husband Harald Leemann: “For their wedding I had to make 200 balls with their faces on them.”

“Back becomes problematic”

Milovanovic tells all this as he prepares Rune’s racket for his round of 16. Three should be strung with 25 kilograms, one with 26. The harder, the more control. Despite the conversation, the main supervisor makes no mistake. “It’s rare that the bullies come right back because something is wrong.”

It happens automatically, he doesn’t have to think much anymore. But what bothers him is the amount of standing. “It’s not even the hands that are problematic, it’s the back.” That’s why he will be happy when the 53rd edition of Swiss Indoors is over.