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Racquet Man
New York City’s Roman Prokes has become the stringer to the stars
RPNY Tennis Located on the second floor of a small, non-descript walk-up building on East 51st St. in Manhattan sits RPNY Tennis. Upon first entering you might think that it’s just your run-of-the-mill retail tennis shop. To your left you’ll probably find a stringer lacing up a racquet, on the walls there are some new racquets and packages of strings, and in the middle of the floor there’s a desk where customers place their orders. Nothing screams that this is a unique store that caters to the needs of the game’s most finicky players.
But as you make your way towards the back, you start to realize that something is a little different about RPNY. There you will find a wall made up of dozens of square cubby holes, each housing 8–10 racquets with names like Roddick, McEnroe, Agassi, and Sharapova written on the bottom. You will also see racks of racquets from various manufacturers without handles and equipment that would seem to be more appropriate in an auto mechanic’s garage.
This is the workplace of Roman Prokes, stringer and racquet customizer to some of the biggest names in tennis. He can modify a frame’s length, weight, and balance, then match it with a string so that the racquet is tailor-made for a particular player’s needs. We caught up with Prokes at his shop right before the U.S. Open to talk about the finer points of racquets and strings.
TENNIS: Say somebody comes into your store looking to buy a new racquet. What do you tell them?
Roman Prokes: When people first come in I almost always try to talk them out of buying a racquet. Because if they buy a racquet and leave, then come back in two weeks and say that their elbow hurts, or the ball flies too much or not enough, they won’t be happy. So I try to get them to demo a frame. Even if they demo a frame once and come back and say that they loved it, it’s great, I try to get them to demo it at least two more times. It’s just like a toy. You get excited the first time and the first time everything feels great. The second time maybe it’s not so great. But it’s better if it takes them two or more times to demo the racquet.
How do you steer a player toward a particular racquet?
I ask them questions. How do you play? What are you looking for? If you get a kid who is 17 or 18, most of the time he’s playing from the back of the court with heavy topspin. Right there you already know that the guy needs control and things to keep the ball in the court. So you need smaller head size, non–wide body, a player-type racquet. There’s no right brand because they all make great racquets. You have to try them all because they each offer a different feel that you might like. So you’re basically within four or five frames by talking with me.
How can altering the weight or other specifications in a racquet come into play?
If someone says he loves the racquet, but didn’t like it on the serve because the ball flies too deep, it’s a very simple solution. Make the racquet more head heavy and the racquet will come down on the ball. If someone says he loves the racquet, but it’s too light, weight doesn’t mean anything because we customize. Just by adding a little weight to make it heavier helps a lot.
What about matching strings to the player?
I always will first ask a person how they play. And by how they play it doesn’t mean if they’re a good or bad player. It’s more about do you have a short or long swing? Do you come to the net a lot? Do you play at the baseline? Do you use heavy topspin?
Let’s say you’re someone who comes to the net all the time and play a lot of doubles. At that point you have a choice between polyester strings, synthetics—there are many different kinds—and natural gut. The next question would be how often do you break strings? If you hit pretty flat and come to the net often, you rarely break strings. Then I would recommend probably natural gut. It gives you the most feel, the most of everything. And since you’re not going to break it, you’re not concerned about the cost.
If you tell me that you break strings all the time, play with heavy topspin like Nadal, that’s great for me if you use natural gut because you’re going to break strings twice a day. Then I would recommend Luxilon strings. Any kind of polyester really, but I like to work with Luxilon because I think they’re great. It lasts longer, it bites the ball, it gives you the control.
So basically by me questioning and you giving me the answers I kind of steer you in a certain direction. A lot of times it takes a couple tries.
You brought up Luxilon. It’s made a huge impact on the pro tour. Do many of your recreational clients play with it?RPNY Tennis
A lot of our retail customers love Luxilon. People just have to know how to string it as far as tension, because people make a mistake and string it too tight. The string has such control, you really don’t have to string it that tightly.
What about hybrids? It seems pretty popular to put Luxilon or another polyester in the mains for durability, and gut in the crosses to soften the string bed. Do you string a lot of racquets that way?
Most of our players use Luxilon or combine it with natural gut. You kind of get the best of both worlds. You get great control and bite on the ball from Luxilon, and great feel from natural gut. Usually you string the gut a couple pounds tighter. For instance for a Head Prestige Mid it’s usually 53 lbs for Luxilon and a couple pounds more for the gut.
How do the racquets you customize for the pros different from what the regular player buys off the rack?
People see things in magazines that the pros use completely different frames. It’s not really the case. There could be slight, slight differences. But mostly it’s in the customizing. So the inside of the frame is made the same or in a very similar way. The company may add a little weight because the player needs it to be heavier, but otherwise it’s very similar to what you buy.
What’s the biggest change you can make on a racquet?
Changing the length of the racquet makes the biggest difference. Some people say to just make the racquet a quarter of an inch longer, but a quarter of an inch is huge in a racquet. When you change the length you have to change everything—weight, balance, swing weight—so that you can handle the racquet.
Can you take me through the process of customizing a racquet for a professional?
I work closely with Prince. And when Maria Sharapova was switching to the O-Ports I went down to Florida a couple of times to find out what she wants. I can’t tell her how to hit a forehand, but [I find out] what can we do with her equipment to make it better. You just have to be able to listen basically and communicate with people. So we go back and forth with Prince to find out what is possible, and what’s not. We come up with sample racquets. Slight different tweaks that they can customize. Then Maria tests them out and from the response we’re much closer to the actual product that Maria will use.
The racquet she played with before which she thought was great was something she played with when she was younger. As she got bigger and stronger, we all felt she needed a racquet that was more of a weapon. A much heavier racquet. With the O-Ports we were able to, because the way it goes through the air, it doesn’t slow you down. It allows you to build up the weight on the racquet without the player saying she’s too slow. That’s allowed us to go noticeably higher weight for her. Now when she’s pushed she can hit a decent defensive shot. There’s more weight on the ball.
How heavy is Sharapova’s racquet?
The unstrung weight for Sharapova is 320 grams [or about 11.3 ounces]. Everybody measures in grams because ounces aren’t exact enough. She used to use around 300 grams [or about 10.6 ounces] before. For the most part women like to use lighter racquets because they play with longer racquets.
I noticed Lindsay Davenport has a cubby hole along the wall. What are the specs on her racquet like?
In a way she’s similar to Maria. Longer racquet, 27.5 inches actually, a little bit lighter at 301.5 grams, and noticeably more head heavy. So when you swing the racquet around it doesn’t seem so light anymore. Having a head-heavy racquet could make you late on the ball if you play on a really quick court. If you’re looking for stability you have to balance the weight out. If you add weight to the head, then you have to add to the handle is well. Otherwise it disrupts the balance.
Which pro you work with uses the longest racquet?
Marion Bartoli’s racquet is 29 inches. Incredibly unusual. If you watch her play it makes a little sense she uses two hands on both sides.
Should players use the heaviest racquet they can comfortably handle?
One hundred percent. You just can’t overdo it because it will slow you down. But as heavy as you can handle. I would say we add weight to 9 out of 10 racquets here.
Which pros use particularly heavy racquets?
Most of the older generation of players like the racquets pretty heavy. Tommy Haas and all those guys. Heavy, more evenly balanced racquets. Haas’ racquet is 352 grams [or about 12.4 ounces] unstrung. Same with John McEnroe.
Who has the heaviest racquet?
The heaviest frame I use to do was for Gabriela Sabatini. It was over 400 grams [or about 14.1 ounces]. Mark Woodforde was incredibly heavy, and Thomas Muster was incredibly heavy. They played a little bit over 400.
What about changes in grip sizes?
In general, players are using smaller grips than they used to. The way they hit the ball, you can come over it much, much more.
Any player that you work with who is pretty big in size, but uses an unusually small grip?
The smallest one was Guga Kuerten. He played with one that was like 4 1/8 inches. He actually wouldn’t use a grip—he would just use three overgrips. He would have a bare handle and wrap three super tight overgrips on it. Spanish players in general, because of the way they play on clay courts behind the baseline, a lot of them play with small grip sizes.
Anybody use a 4 and 5/8?
Mike Bryan, but not many else.
What about Agassi?
Andre uses 4 and 7/16.
What about the weight of his racquet?
340 grams [or about 12 ounces].
And the strings?
He uses all Luxilon. It was in Rome, about five years ago between the first and second round, and I had talked to him about Luxilon for some time, that he told me he now wanted to try it. I told him it probably wasn’t the best time.
Agassi strikes me as the type of player who is extremely particular about his racquets specifications. Is that true?
Andre knows what he wants. He’s the ultimate professional.
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