High tension: the 'stringer' charged with keeping pros' racquets in tip-top shape at Hong Kong Tennis Open
Hong Kong-based Dickie Lee has strung racquets for the world’s best players at 23 grand slam events since making his debut at the Hong Kong Champions Challenge in 1999
He holds his hands alongside one another. His right hand is slightly bigger than the other and gnarled with callouses erupting from the knuckles. His ragged finger tips look more like those of a bad barbed wire installer than a master craftsman.
“Look at my hands,” he sighs. “Can you see how they’re different?” As he turns them over side by side, you can’t help but notice the difference.
“An experienced stringer’s hands should look like this. It’s gone like that because I use my right one for weaving,” he says as he takes a large pair of scissors and nonchalantly trims away a large chunk of hardened flesh from the edge of his weaving hand.
Dickie Lee is a Hong Kong-based racquet technician or ‘stringer’ - the most experienced in Greater China he delights in reminding me. And his hands are all the proof you need of that.
He has strung racquets for the world’s best tennis players at 23 grand slam tournaments since his first job at the Hong Kong Champions Challenge in 1999.
He has worked at numerous WTA and ATP events across the world during his long career and has serviced players at the Olympic Games.