2026 Tiburon Challenger – Stringing & Stringing Team

The 2026 Tiburon Challenger marked the 18th year at the beautiful Tiburon Peninsula Club in Tiburon, California. Part of the ATP Challenger Tour, these events are where next-generation stars rise, and seasoned veterans make their comeback. Many touring pros use this tournament to earn valuable ATP ranking points to qualify for larger ATP Tour and Grand Slam events.

I want to thank Roger Gough (IART) for inviting me back to join an outstanding stringing team, including David Hall (IART), Javier Ronchietto, and Andy Liang.

Here are notes from Roger:

• On September 10, he and David Hall packed their two cars and headed to the Tiburon ATP Challenger, which was upgraded from a 75 to a 125 event this year. It ran from September 13-20.
• We set up at the site on Friday morning (9/11), and started stringing for players around noon.  The team strung 367 racquets total. The busiest days were Saturday (66), Sunday (60), and Monday (55).
• We used four machines from Friday to Thursday: (3) Dunlop 3.0 and (1) Wilson Baiardo Lite.
• In addition to stringing services, the team repaired racquets and installed grommets. They also serviced racquets for club members during their downtime.
• The stringing area was 10’x20’, using two 10×10 canopies outside on the cafe patio area with four-foot LED shop lights above each of the machines. The team used a pre-tournament paper system to track player restrings and payments, as well as stringer racquets done and machines used.
• The team collected 21 pounds of used polyester strings for recycling for LET, a company that repurposes them into high-performance apparel.
• Stringing Report
  • Most racquets strung: Michael Mmoh (25)
  • Highest requested string tension: Ozan Baris & Vignesh Gogineni (57 lbs.)
  • Lowest requested string tension: Jean-Julien Rojer (36 lbs.)
  • Most popular grip size was 4-1/4 (#2). Four players used 4-1/8 (#1)
  • Number of on-court string jobs: (10) This was the last racquet strung during the singles final. Watch video HERE.
• Thank you to all the stringers for coming to this year’s Tiburon Challenger.  All are very experienced and professional, adding one more positive to this tournament for the players.  The team strung 100 more racquets than the previous year. Thank you to Juliana Moreno and the Tiburon Peninsula Club for having us provide the stringing services again. Special thanks to David Hall for making the long journey from the UK to Tiburon once again. It’s great to say we have an international stringing team! I’ll be looking forward to the 2027 Tiburon Challenger.

Here were some unusual requests:

• JP Smith requested that his Zus 100 racquet be strung so the hoop shape remained as oval as possible. Basically, we had to “pre-stretch” his unstrung frame by tightening the 12:00/6:00 billiards tighter than normal to elongate the hoop. When his racquet came back strung, I mounted the racquet, tightened the billiards, cut out the string, then proceeded to restring it.
• Brad Gilbert (not playing in the tournament) dropped off two old-school wooden racquets to be strung for decoration purposes. Roger took on the feat, while having fun stringing them.  At the very least, I think it spiced things up for him!
• A player (identity confidential) had his Head Speed Pros strung at 45.5 pounds up through the quarter-finals. Sometime during the third set, he requested an on-court stringing at 43 pounds. He won the set 7-5. The next day, I asked his coach if he used the racquet in that final set. He said, “No, and he thought it was crazy for his player to request such a low tension.”

Our stringing team followed these guidelines to maintain consistency and uniformity in our string jobs:

• Racquet mounted, and strings stenciled butt cap up.
• We strung racquets on the same machine and with the same stringer, unless circumstances prevented it.
• Players could choose 1-piece or 2-piece stringing; no one requested 1-piece.
• Tie-offs
  • Pro Knot
  • 10% increase
  • Top cross location on the right
• Tension head pull speed on the Dunlop 3.0 machines were set at “Middle.”
• Cross string runs were installed above the main string runs.
• Racquet labels were placed on the right side of the throat.

When asked, “What was the highlight of stringing at the Tiburon Challenger?”, here’s what the team members said: