Interview with Peter Lehrner, Part I: "I was always a material fetishist"
For over 45 years Peter Lehrner has strung rackets for the best tennis players in the world. In the first part of the interview with tennisnet.com, the Lower Austrian reveals how this area has developed over the past few decades and what the major challenges for him as a stringer in these years have been.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Jun 14, 2021, 05:02 pm
Mr. Lehrner, you have been stringing tennis rackets for 45 years. What was the strangest racket you stringed during that time?
It actually started for me fifty years ago because as a young player I kept experimenting with rackets and strings. Then in 1976 I bought my first stringing machine. But when I think of the biggest curiosities, Jimmy Connors' Wilson T2000 definitely comes to mind. That was the frame that was certainly the most difficult to string. You couldn't string it without instructions. If you then knew this by heart, then it was something like the master's examination.
This double-sided spaghetti covering was also curious. There was a German, his name was Werner Fischer, who developed a method in which two strings were always pulled through for the main strings and only a few cross strings were used. He made it flexible with rubber rings and that meant that the main strings on the cross string worked enormously and slipped, giving the ball an insane twist. That was also one of the reasons that (Guillermo note) Vilas lost after 53 victories on clay against (note Ilie) Nastase because he played with this upholstery. That was only a topspin of three or four meters behind the baseline and a trajectory without end. In the end, it led to the association banning this and starting to regulate the string network.
That was something like the master's examination.
Lehrner about his most demanding framework.
In these 45 years, not only a lot of strange things have happened, something has certainly changed. In terms of strings, how has tennis evolved over the past half century?
The really crucial step was being able to pull polyester out of the extruder. The polyester strings have changed the whole thing very much. Up to 76, 77, sometimes even 1980, only natural gut was played because the synthetic strings weren't that far back then. I even experimented with wire strings myself. As a young player, paying 600 schillings for the covering every time, my father soon went on strike. Then we tried that with a thin wire, but the balls couldn't take it again. After a certain time they were without felt. The natural casing is still the highest quality and most elastic base material.
Only in the course of the development of the rackets - a lot was changed on the racket front - the natural gut strings were at some point no longer durable enough to work with the enlarged playing surfaces and in some cases could not withstand the high string weight. For many hobby players who got into tennis during this time, it was also a question of cost. And then the polyester strings were very popular, especially those made by Kirschbaum, which began to stir up the market in 1987.
Of course, companies also came from the polyester sector who wanted to recreate natural gut strings that worked with multifilaments. The company Isosport can be mentioned here, which began to produce tennis strings in 1989 and, especially at the beginning, only worked with polyamide strings, which were ribbons that were wired. That was the string that Tom (note Thomas Muster) played with for years.
Roger Federer was certainly one of the first.
About the use of hybrid strings.
The latest craze for synthetic strings was actually the company Luxilon, which started in 1991. They came from the aircraft and medical sectors and were confronted with the strings by the players Woodforde and Woodbridge, the Australian double specialists. Woodforde has a club made by Snauwaert played - with only twelve main strings and correspondingly few cross strings. The regulation was that you weren't allowed to make 18 main strings and only five cross strings. The squares had to be arranged in a uniform shape.
The Snauwaert company then said that you do it evenly, with twelve main strings but only 13 cross strings. But with the conventional string gauges, Woodford only played ten minutes because the strings had slipped so badly and were chafed and burned through. So Snauwaert then went to the company Luxilon, which actually had nothing to do with tennis, but with plastic cords, and they produced a 1.6 millimeter thick synthetic string for Woodforde. That then worked. The Luxilon guys smelled a fuse and tried to make their strings thinner and thinner - with the options they had. In the end, the famous Alu Power came out, which in truth completely shook up the tennis market in the top segment, in the player segment. Of the best 200, 80% then played Luxilon's Alu Power. So there was already a huge change from gut to monofilament strings, to polyester strings, even in the highly professional sector.
Today it has developed in such a way that the best natural gut string, the Babolat VS with the best synthetic string, i.e. the one from Luxilon, has established itself among the players. Federer (note: Roger) was definitely one of the first to play lengthways and crossways with the Alu Power rough, which meant that the main string on the cross string could work a bit at the moment of impact. The main string gives way a little at the moment of impact, but then slips back again. For tennis players it is uncomfortable when the main string starts to slip and then gets stuck - i.e. does not slip back into the starting position. Because then you get an open string pattern and if you hit the ball in such an open area, then you actually have a spread of up to half a meter.
This leads to the fact that the top players get a total loss of control, because they would then play rallies with over 20 strokes, in which the mesh slipped on the last five strokes. You can't straighten the strings while playing. The good monofilament strings or the mixture of natural gut and monofilament strings, however, mean that the string slips back into the starting position of the braid and thus ball control can be maintained for the entire rally. In truth, that's why they play it that way. In addition, the melting points of the monofilament and natural gut strings are different, which means that the string does not notch as quickly and the natural gut string lasts much longer. Of course, a lot has happened in terms of production options.
When you look back: Why did you decide to work as a stringers?
I was always a material fetishist, in my short active time it was always important that the clubs were the same and that the covering was good. I went to the Orange Bowl around 1971 and at that time I had a contract with the Slazenger company and out of 50 wooden clubs with the same grip strength we only found five frames that were equally heavy and had the same balance point. I just felt it when a club broke and the next one was a little different. That irritated me, because I always needed one or two games to get used to it. But when that happens in a crucial phase of the match, it makes you nervous as a player. It is the same with the tension and the type of tension. It was very important to me very early on that these things were always the same and that they worked.
When I had to stop because I had an eye problem, I hesitated a bit whether I would become a coach or whether I would throw myself into the sports shop. After I got to know Roland Gusenbauer there, it so happened that I got into the sporting goods industry - specializing in tennis. But I was also very fanatical about the ski service, which is very much related to the stringing of tennis rackets. Because even the best ski doesn't run without a good base and edges. This is exactly how a good racket only becomes a "weapon" with the optimal string.
And what is still keeping your fascination for this job 45 years later?
I just like it when I know that the players, regardless of the division, are satisfied. When I make the club for you, fix it up and advise you on what you can improve and optimize, I really enjoy it. I am also a hobbyist, I do a lot of manual work and I just have fun remembering ´Oops`, he is good at it and then he plays better. Back in the business, it was always my top priority that I make the bat as if it were for me or for Tom. Of course, that is also a certain form of professionalism that has always been important to me. That's probably why I'm still there and I'm still allowed to accompany some of the players today.
For over 40 years, Peter Lehrner has been offering world-class racket service in his “House of Tennis” in Mödling.You can find all information about the racket service of the tuning expert here!
The interview with Peter Lehrner can also be found in the brand new tennis magazine from tennisnet.com. You can secure your copy here!