Arguably the best stringer in Australia, Kian Pin Lay is working at his 11th Australian Open.
He's also worked twice at the Olympic Games, several US Opens and Davis Cup matches. Every year at Melbourne Park he strings approximately 500 racquets. But, perhaps above all, he's in charge of Rafael Nadal's Babolat racquet.
Before he became the man who looks after world's top players' racquets, he was an athlete himself in East Timor, before leaving everything behind in the late '90s to flee to Australia, as the political situation at home turned to catastrophe.
The grandson of a Chinese migrant to East Timor, Lay played badminton in competitions against the other 27 provinces of Indonesia, as East Timor was then a part of the massive nation.
Pin Lay Source: SBS Italian
"I played from '89 to '94/'95 until the sponsor went bankrupt," Lay tells SBS Italian on the sidelines of the Australian Open. "After that we kept playing but we did not take it seriously anymore."
When he arrived in Australia his badminton career was already over.
"I came to Australia after I got married but I did not play much. I tried but I got injured and I stopped," he says.
But in the meantime he developed a different career, of which he had experience in since his early days as a badminton player. It all started in the late '80s, when he was training in Indonesia.
"I was breaking a lot of strings and I brought my racquet to a shop and that is when I saw my first stringing machine. But before that I had to repair and string my racquet without the machine. I had to string it just by hand and some bamboo and some hood to make some tension," he says.
"When I saw the stringing machine I thought, 'how cool'."
That encounter with the machine inspired his next move. Lay returned to East Timor and began stringing badminton and tennis racquets in his shop in Dili. He bought his first stringing machine from a shop that happened to be closing down and two years later acquired a second one. That was how he learned the trade.
Stan Wawrinka and Pin Lay Source: Courtesy of Pin Lay
Then, in the late '90s, the political situation became increasingly tense in East Timor, as the state's independence referendum was held in August, 1999, during which voters choose to split from Indonesia.
Violence erupted as a consequence, and the 1999 East Timorese crisis ensued.
"Before the elections I came to Australia to avoid that," Lay says. "I left my house and my business. It was not only stringing, but [it was also] a bicycle shop and [we even sold] food."
He had family in Australia and he initially moved to Darwin and then on to Melbourne.
"I had a tourist visa as I had two sisters who could sponsor me," he says. "At that time there were not many asylum seekers from East Timor, so they asked me if I wanted to apply for a protection visa."
According to Lay, he was one of the last people from East Timor coming to Australia before Canberra started trying to stop them.
When he arrived, Lay spoke Bahasa, Mandarin, a little Portuguese and no English.
"I had to learn it," he says. "After four or five months studying English the school offered working experiences."
His first such opportunity was in a bicycle shop where he could apply his existing skills. They offered him a full-time job but he refused as he needed to keep studying English. It was a wise choice, as his second work experience appointment would prove to be a game changer.
It was at Prelli, a well-established tennis shop in Collingwood.
Pin Lay Source: SBS Italian
"The boss Lou [Smarrelli] after seeing that I could string, offered me a part time job," says Lay.
After 20 years, Lay still works at Prelli.
In the meantime his status in Australia was progressing and in 2005 he was granted permanent resident status.
But, after all of this, how did he become the stringer of top players at the Australian Open?
"I worked for Lou for 10 years, as you need those skills to become a Grand Slam stringer." says Lay of the skills, dedication and connections that led him to the top of the game.
Pin finally started working for both the tennis and badminton Australian Opens in 2009, yet he did not start stringing for the top players immediately.
"You have to start gradually," says Lay. "On the first year you start with the qualifiers, all players. I remember that - that time I strung for Tsonga."
"In 2009 I did Australian Open tennis and then the US Open and then [the] China Open," he says.
This year it is Lay's 11th Australian Open, but he also joined the Australian team for the Davis Cup and he worked two Olympics - London in 2012 and Rio in 2016. He hasn't stopped stringing badminton racquets either.
So how many racquets does he string during the Australian Open tournament?
"Roughly probably about 30 to 40 racquets every day during the qualifiers," he says. "[It's] long hours, from 6am to 1:30am."
And how many in the tournament overall?
"Probably 400 to 500 racquets", he said. "I have got Rafael Nadal so I cannot string a lot of other players."
And top players need a lot of string.
"We have Serena Williams and for every match she needs 10 to 12 racquets. So you cannot have too many players in case they happen to play at the same time, because every player requests the same machine and the same stringer".
How did Nadal pick him?
"He did not pick me," says Lay. "Last year there was no issue with my stringing so I am doing it [for Nadal] again."
Lay has worked with just about every modern-day tennis star, but one: "The only player I haven't strung for is Roger [Federer], because he has his own stringer".
