IT’S game, set and match for a Verwood firm at this year’s Wimbledon tennis tournament... and it hasn’t even started yet.

Apollo Leisure, which specialises in restringing tennis rackets, has secured a one-year contract to replace the stars’ strings during the world’s oldest tennis event.

“We will string for Rafael Nadal, Nikolay Davydenko, Venus and Serena Williams, Svetlana Kusnetsova and Ana Ivanovic,” said managing director Jeremy Holt.

He added that due to the demands of the game “the players will restring their rackets every day and some, like Nadal, will have eight or 10 frames strung every day”.

Apollo, on the Ebblake Industrial Estate, snatched victory from Bow Brand, which had looked after Wimbledon for the last 15 years and now Apollo aims to retain the deal for at least as long.

Mr Holt explained that the company’s 20 self-employed stringers would restring the rackets for most of the players – 128 men and 128 women – plus all the juniors and veterans.

“Over three weeks we will be stringing in excess of two thousand rackets for the players,” he said, adding that the deal was struck after discussions with the All England Club.

According to Mr Holt, it takes between 20 and 25 minutes to replace the strings on a tennis racket and “on our busiest days, when we have 12 stringers, they will be doing 20-plus rackets a day”.

Apollo started stringing at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, which saw Andy Murray clinch a victory, fuelling hopes that he could become Britain’s first Wimbledon winner for 71 years.

And since last Monday the firm has been looking after rackets in the qualifying event for Wimbledon.