Hitting your tennis serves too long? Missing bounce overheads going beyond the baseline? Punch half volleys going too deep? Time for new racquet strings!
Joined Sunnyvale Tennis Club in 1981, probably before you were born, and had my Prince Thundersticks and Prince Triple Threat RIP 110 strung at Las Palmas for the next two decades.
It was pretty much touch and go, with the string tension not consistent from job to job, depending on who was doing it, and the cost upwards to $40.
Fast forward to a new century. Through word of mouth I heard of Sang Kim's Quick Racket Restringing Service at 439 South Kiely Blvd. Now, once every three months I bring in my racket to be restrung with Prince Blend 16 gauge strings at 63 lbs pressure for my Prince EXO Silver 110 racket.
I hit most of my ground strokes flat in doubles, with a backhand slice, and so don't wear out or break my strings like top spinners. After 3 months I've lost about 5 lbs of tension and start hitting routine shots long, and hitting first serves too long -time for restringing!
I call up Sang at 408-655-0156 after work on a weekday, and ask him if he has my string in stock, and if so, if he can get it done in half an hour. If so, down I come from Mountain View, on 85 south and then 280 south, exiting at Saratoga, and making a left turn onto Saratoga, and then a right turn onto Kiely into the strip mall at the corner.
Sang is in the Pure Water store, with hours Tuesday-Saturday 9am-7pm (closes 6pm Sat) . Standard price is $12 for restringing with a 4 hour turnaround time. But that's for weekend players who still play with the junky cheap racquet strings that came with the original racquet, and only bring in the racquets when they mishit and break a string on very top or very bottom of the string pattern, or totally wear down the strings through continual topspin shots.
The Club players come here and pay top prices for top quality strings. Sang charges me $25 for my restringing, as it requires two different sets of string, one for horizontal, and one for vertical, and is on the newer racquet designs, with air vents in the frame. It would cost $40+ at Las Palmas or Cuesta. On a weekday, I came in at 1025pm, and he was done by 11am. Extra $2 for a rush job. Cash only.
The store also has some ancient rackets, like the Prince Warrior from the previous century, hanging on the wall for sale, but I only use this place for restringing. He's also open on Saturdays, but is hopeless swamped with tennis string jobs.
Light 9 ounce racquets strung at high tension not for tennis novices! My wife tried using my racquets and got tennis elbow after half an hour of play.
In the past I've also passed the time waiting by getting a hair cut next door for $12. Getting clipped both at the restringing shop and hair shop at the same time.
If you know of any place that sells a Prince EXO Silver 110 racket, send me a Yelp message! Tennis companies bring out new models every year, and the new racquets with air vents in the frame have a shorter life expectancy than the older racquets .
With the new strings, I should not be missing my headhunting overheads at my ex across the net!
Oh, I forgot, she retired from tennis, after getting too many fuzz sandwiches from my overheads!