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Posted on: September 20th, 2002

Custom Made: Nate Ferguson Fine-Tunes Sampras` Racquets

- petepage

Custom Made: Nate Ferguson Fine-Tunes Sampras` Racquets
[09/20/2002 Richard Pagliaro] It was April 1st, 1999 when Nate Ferguson picked up the phone in his Boca Raton, Florida home and heard the unmistakable, understated urgency in Pete Sampras' simple five-word statement. Ferguson immediately recognized this was no April Fool's Day joke, but for the man who makes his living reviving racquets for one of the game's greatest players, the irony was inescapable.

"Pete said, 'Nate, I'm out of racquets,' " Ferguson remembers. "I said, "I've been making your racquets since 1990 ?out of your own personal collection ? and today's the day you're going to tell me you're out.' It's ironic, but true."

When the U.S. Open champion has a racquet emergency, Ferguson always answers the call. And when you make your living relying on a racquet as your sole source of support on court as Sampras does, it make sense to hire one of the world's leading racquet customizers in Ferguson to travel the world with you. While Sampras' coach, Paul Annacone, and trainer, Brett Stephens, are familiar faces to tennis fans who see them seated court-side at Sampras matches, most people probably couldn't pick Ferguson's face out of a crowd. Yet he is one of the most important members of Sampras' support team, who helped played a pivotal part in Sampras' sensational run to his 14th Grand Slam championship at the U.S. Open earlier this month.

While Sampras is competing on the court, Ferguson is busy working behind the scenes, rebuilding Sampras' racquets and handles as well as balancing, re-gripping and re-stringing every racquet to suit Sampras' specifications. The married father of two children travels to every tournament with Sampras to ensure his racquets are in a constant state of playing perfection.

"Pete is an absolute a perfectionist," Ferguson said. "He knows exactly what he wants and it's my job to be sure the racquets meet that standard. At the U.S. Open, for instance, I strung nine racquets starting at 8 a.m. to get them ready for Pete's practices and matches. It's my job to make sure I can get racquets strung on site at the same tension. Sometimes that's difficult because stringing machines can vary. That's the whole science and whole reason behind having one guy with one stringing machine traveling everywhere to string your racquets ?because it eliminates the variables you can get from different machines and you know you will get the consistency from one guy with one machine."

Traveling with his own stringing machine and equipment, Ferguson could consider carrying his own "do not disturb" sign with him ?he does much of the stringing in his hotel room as some tournaments will not permit private stringers to use their stringing machines.

"It varies from tournament to tournament: some will allow you to bring your own machine to the site and some won't," Ferguson said. "I am generally invited to string Pete's racquet on their (the tournament's) equipment. Pete's racquet is not the easiest to string. It's very high tension and very thin gut string. Screw it up and it breaks. So if I give it to them with all the tools and extra grommets I have to keep it from breaking, it will take someone else like 40 minutes to string whereas I can be on their machine and out of their hair in 20 minutes. Which are you gonna do? Almost everywhere at every tournament the people are very, very accommodating and very, very nice. That makes it a lot easier for me to work."

His work includes customizing racquets for several top players including Lleyton Hewitt, Tim Henman, Mark Philippoussis, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Mardy Fish. The list of players Ferguson has worked with in his career is impressive, but from Ferguson's perspective the number of players who don't customize racquets is alarming.

"I'd say there are about 60 guys who play with custom-made racquets," Ferguson said. "You'd be surprised how many players use stock racquets. As a junior or someone who has to play qualifying just to get into qualifying, they usually get about six racquets (from racquet companies) per year. How would your racquets look if you were limited to six racquets that were limited to 340 grams ?there's almost no graphite to them ?every day? You literally get players going out buying racquets off the shelf. There are players at Masters Series events who have smashed their racquets and wanted to go to the store and buy a racquet off the shelf because they were out. I know that happens for a fact. That shows the ignorance of racquets some players ?even highly ranked players ?can have. Pete is not that way. He approaches his job in a much more professional manner. "

Playing with his classic Wilson Pro Staff frame and using gut string that looks about as thin as dental floss used by fleas, Sampras can can snap stings faster than a guitar player plucking strings with a razor rather than a pick. The ever-present Ferguson is always there to keep Sampras' stings in tune.

"Pete was having problems keeping tight strings in his racquet, which is why he hired me to travel with him full-time in 1998," Ferguson said. "First of all the strings can break with Pete pulling a racquet out of his bag. At the World Championships in Hannover in 1999, I think, he reached in his bag, pulled out a racquet walked out on court and I'm yelling: 'Pete, Pete, the string's broken.' He holds it up, goes like this 'Oh', walks over to his bag, gets a fresh racquet and everyone in the crowd applauds as if he's so powerful he could break a string without swinging the racquet."

Sampras' swing speed combined with his relatively thin strings create the broken strings that can keep Ferguson very busy during tournaments.

"My job is to make his grip, make his handle, make his racquet and do his strings," Ferguson said. "We have changed his strings slightly since I started traveling with Pete in 1998. In those days, he was using 122 gauge string which is 1.22 millimeter thin ?they basically make it for squash. At 75 pounds tension and 122 gauge all it takes is one mis-hit and it breaks. Now, we're actually using 125 except on grass where the points are short we still use 122 gauge.People who have watched Pete throughout his career may notice he's breaking fewer strings now than when he started playing."

It was shortly after Sampras turned pro that he turned to Ferguson for his racquet expertise.

A native of Glastonbury, Connecticut, Ferguson's first contact with the then-unheralded and skinny Sampras came prior to the Los Angeles teenager creating a career-breakthrough by scoring a series of stunning upsets in succession over Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe and Andre Agassi to capture his first U.S. Open championship in 1990 and become the youngest Flushing Meadows men's champion at 19 years, 28 days.

At the time, Sampras was a few years away from reaching No. 1, but Ferguson was already at the top of his field refining racquets for Lendl and Martina Navratilova. The former high school and college tennis player had little indication that his initial phone conversation with the soft-spoken Sampras would prove to be a life-altering even for both of them.

"The company I was with in Connecticut was almost almost strictly custom-building racquets so we had a great list of clients including Lendl and Navratilova and along comes this 19-year-old kid named Pete Sampras," Ferguson said. "He called and had a lot of questions about racquets and I explained to him what the process was of duplicating a favorite racquet. He was very curious and asked a lot of questions. He had a real genuine interest in racquets and how they're customized. I could tell the handle, head and feel of the racquets were very important to him right off the bat."

Since their initial meeting, Sampras and Ferguson have forged a productive partnership with Sampras' actively offering suggestions for his racquets and strings and Ferguson working on turning the suggestions into solutions.

"We've sat up late many nights brainstorming ideas for improvements," Ferguson said. "For example, he used to play with a leather grip underneath the (overgrip) tourna-grip. When he was playing a lot of tournaments and almost never losing his hand was tournament tough, but as he cut back on his schedule and was not playing as much in the offseason we found that come January, when he'd go to Australia where it's hotter than the blazes to start the season, he'd get these big callouses and blisters on the palm of his hand. That's why we went to the sweat-absorbing synthetic grip. He only uses one overgrip, but he'll change it during the course of the match. Which is why sometimes you'll see him put a racquet down and pick up a fresh one ?because the sweat has soaked right through the grip so he'll get a fresh one. Not because the strings are about to break or because he doesn't like the feel, but because he wants a dry grip. The racquet has to feel right in his hand and he can tell right away if it's not right."

The attention to detail Ferguson's work requires is remarkable as Sampras is as in tune with the slightest subtle change to his strings and racquet as a clasically-trained violinist is to any variation in his Stradivarius.

"Pete is very much aware of the slightest changes," Ferguson said. "When I make the but-cap for Pete's racquet, for instance, it could be to within a hundredth of a millimeter to what he wants, but I swear to you if it's the slightest bit off, Pete can tell just by picking up the racquet."

A tennis traditionalist in everything ranging from his classically-constructed strokes to all-white tennis attire, Sampras' values of tradition extends to his equipment, which he has been reluctant to change since he turned pro. Asking Sampras to change his racquet is like asking the All England Club to forgo grass in favor of artificial turf, Statue of Liberty to trade her torch for a Bic lighter, B.B. King to drop "Lucille" his favored guitar for a ukulele or Picasso to pawn his paint brush for a tooth brush,

"Certainly, Pete has had great success with that 85 square-inch head, 27-inch long Pro Staff racquet, weighing just over 390 grams," Ferguson said. "Pete has never changed, length, weight, balance or swing weight in all these years. Pete is aware of the slightest change or difference in a racquet."

In an era were some club players use racquets with string surfaces as broad as butterfly nets and racquets so powerful you feel you can hit through the net, the small size of Sampras' preferred Pro Staff makes it appear about as powerful as a ping pong paddle.

The skill required to excel with Sampras' racquet is substantial. Sampras' style is rooted in wood. The classic Jack Kramer wood model was one of the first racquets Sampras used as a child and the former No. 1 has often said the best advice he can offer kids learning to play tennis is to learn the game playing with a wood racquet, which requires a young player to develop sound strokes, before moving on to the technologically-advanced racquets of today.

"Pete went from the Wilson Jack Kramer, wood, to the Pro Staff 6.0," Ferguson said. "I made him a wood Jack Kramer for his birthday a couple of years ago. If you watched Arthur Ashe Day at the Open a few years ago you saw him serve with it. If tennis ever went back to wood, which they never would, Pete would be almost unbeatable. He would dominate. He's one of the only guys out there playing with a wood-weight racquet. You see guys out there now whipping around 350 gram racquets, but slap 30 more grams on there and see how well they hit. Pete can play with such a heavy racquet with such a small head because he has such classic strokes and such a classic game."

It is a game rooted in ritual refined over years of playing. Tennis fans are familiar with Sampras' stylized movements from the way he lifts his left toe during the start of his serve, to the expressiveness of his running forehand to his swiftly swiping the sweat from his forehead with his index finger to the way he gazes at his strings between points.

The next time you watch a match and see Sampras intently staring at his strings don't automatically assume he's regaining his focus for the next point or a self-hypnotic trance to help him attain victory. In reality, Sampras may just be inspecting his strings to see how much longer he can play with that particular racquet without risking a rupture in the string bed.

"Pete is always paying attention," Ferguson said. "He'll use a racquet until he feels the strings are about to go. There are many ways to get control, but Pete prefers feel as the way to control. The better the feel, the better the control. A freshly-strung racquet is tighter than one that has been played with. As you play, the coating of the gut wears off, which makes the strings grittier and gives better feel. The strings don't slide around as much after they've been played with. The surface of the string has as much to do with the feel ?and therefore control ?as the tension. A lot of guys like the feel of fresh strings. In theory the tension is tighter and should be more control, but I disagree with that concept. I experienced this as a player, the gut felt best right before it broke."

It is that moment when Sampras' strings reach the breaking point that he feels most in control ?walking that tightrope of taut tennis string bordering between near-breakage and complete control is where Sampras sometimes resides.

"The gut string is getting thinner and thinner and unraveling so why does it feel so good?" Ferguson said. "Because you have the fiber right there ?you're into the core of the fiber, there's no coating, there's no oil and that's the purest feeling. That's what it's all about ?that pure feeling of striking the ball with the gut and of course Pete likes that so he will play with it as long as possible. But we've come to an agreement where you've got to put the racquet down before it gets to that point where you risk breakage."

Imagine attempting to drive a Formula I race car at a fast speed without a steering wheel and you begin to get an idea of the sensation Sampras feels while trying to play a point after snapping a string.

"Pete's only got 16 main strings and 18 cross strings ?it's a very dense string pattern ?so when he breaks a string the racquet is entirely uncontrollable," Ferguson said. "And the pressure points he plays can be a very expensive time to snap a string."

While Sampras' stoic concentration on court has been as important to his career as his leaping overhead, Ferguson has seen Sampras snap. Ferguson was courtside when a frustrated and fatigued Sampras snapped the only racquet of his career in a split-second rage that silenced the crowd.

"Not only was I there, I still have the racquet that he smashed," Ferguson said with a smile. "It was in Stockholm, Sweden in 1998. Pete was trying to continued his streak of finishing No. 1, he had played seven straight weeks in Europe and he was just mentally fried. He lost the first set to Jason Stoltenberg and just went 'boom' smashed the racquet to the ground, it landed on the tip and cracked. You don't ever see him do that. He was just tired and frustrated. He's human and he let it out. It was a release."

After more than a decade of working together, Sampras and Ferguson have developed a friendship that transcends their tennis working relationship. It's a friendship with strings always attached and Ferguson wouldn't have it any other way.

"It may sound boring to hear, but Pete is extremely courteous, he's fair, he's generous, he's thoughtful," Ferguson said. "I couldn't imagine working for a better guy. We come over to the U.S. Open in his private car every match. He stays in a hotel where a lot of musicians who were at the MTV music awards stayed so there were hundreds of people out front. Pete would have the car pull around the back because he's just low key and he's not one who wants a lot of attention. His feeling is 'Let's keep it calm and quiet and let's just go do our job. I like that about him. He's a true professional and I have even more respect for him than his fans because I know how seriously he takes it and how hard he prepares."

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