The Racquet Lab

Few classic racquets strung recently.. Don’t see many of these about anymore - Adidas GTO from 1983 strung with Natural Gut & 23 crosses! And an even older Wilson Jack Kramer Autograph from around 1948!

We are closed for a couple of weeks now until Thursday 7th November. Thanks to everyone who has got racquets strung or customised or matched over the last year. If you need advice please get in touch and we will get back to you as soon as possible after 7th Nov.

New Wilson racquets customised and ready for Caleb Ralston returning to Bath tomorrow. 6 frames with up to 10g difference customised to make them more head heavy and then matched. Good luck to as he heads back to training tomorrow!

Why bother customising or matching your racquets? Here are 2 seemingly identical Babolat Pure Drives - very popular racquets. Both are described as 315g in weight and 315mm balance. But there’s also that +/-7 beside both figures! That means 2 racquets are allowed to be up to 14g different!
In this case these 2 racquets have almost a full 10g difference in weight which is almost enough to be a different model!

So what’s the process to fix this?

1. Racquets are stripped back of strings & grips, cleaned and 3 important and related measurements taken - weight, balance and swing weight

2. Change any of these measurements and it will affect the other two. Blu Tack is used to test the amount and position of additional weight required to match the racquets

3. This is then changed to lead tape (and in some cases other materials when needed) and applied to the racquet

4. The same 3 measurements are taken again with the aim of bringing the weight to within +/- 0.1g, the balance within +/- 1mm and the swing weight within +/- 1kg/cm2

5. Then the racquets can be restrung and re-grippped and are ready to go!

(Weight, Balance, Swing-weight)

Racquet 1:
304.0g 32.7mm 298

Racquet 2 before matching:
294.7g 32.9mm 288

Racquet 2 after matching:
304.0g 32.7mm 297


@ The Racquet Lab

2 seemingly identical brand new 295g Head racquets... But one is actually 5g heavier than the other and a swingweight that’s 10kg/cm3 higher.

As a result for a tournament level player they would play noticeably as very different racquets.

If you break a string mid match and you need to be able to pick up a racquet you can be sure will play the same way. By measuring the weight, swingweight and balance of each frame and then adding weight in the right places you can make sure your racquets all feel and play exactly the same way.

A great week at The Racquet Lab Ulster Senior Open at Belfast Boat Club! Glad to be able to support the tournament this year financially as well in my 10th year as Tournament Director. Congratulations to all the winners and runners up - many of whom get their racquets strung with The Racquet Lab. In particular Jessica Leeman and Cian McDonnell who have both had many racquets serviced over the years! @ Belfast Boat Club

Congratulations to all the winners at The Racquet Lab Ulster Senior Open at Belfast Boat Club this week! A fantastic week of tennis was completed in perfect conditions with close, well fought finals throughout. Congratulations in particular to Jordan Mckeown on sucessfully defending his title and to Jessica Leeman on clinching her first, and probably not last, Ulster Senior Open title . Both are very deserving winners. Very well done also to the singles runners up who both clinched Doubles titles.
Caitlin Mccullough, who narrowly lost out in a 3rd set tie break in the singles, joined with sister Annie McCullough in the ladies doubles and Michael Blease in the Mixed for a clean sweep of doubles titles.
Runner up on the men's side was 16 year old Cian Mcdonnell who will undoubtably be lifting the Ulster Singles title before long and who joined with Rory Cunningham to win a thrilling men's doubles final 7-5 in the 3rd set with the biggest crowd of the day watching.
Thanks to our sponsors The Racquet Lab and to everyone who took part and we look forward to seeing you again next year!

Congratulations to all the winners at The Racquet Lab Ulster Senior Open at Belfast Boat Club this week! A fantastic week of tennis was completed in perfect conditions with close, well fought finals throughout. Congratulations in particular to Jordan Mckeown on sucessfully defending his title and to Jessica Leeman on clinching her first, and probably not last, Ulster Senior Open title . Both very deserving winners. Very well done also to the runners up - Caitlin Mccullough who narrowly lost out in a 3rd set tie break and to 16 year old Cian Mcdonnell who will undoubtably be lifting this title before long.

Photos from The Racquet Lab Ulster Senior Open 2018 at Belfast Boat Club. Thanks to everyone who took part and congratulations to all the winners.
Thanks also to our photographer on finals day Lee Irvine.

The racquets are piling up at The Racquet Lab Ulster Senior Open! Day 2 on court finished just before midnight with the last mixed doubles match going to 7-5 in the 3rd set!

Senior Open at Boat Club nets Racquet deal Newly rebranded local business, The Racquet Lab, is the new sponsor for this year's Ulster Senior Open Tennis Championships which will be held at the Belfast Boat Club from Sunday, June