A Tennis Bag Repair Kit Belongs With The Racquet

A racquet bag is a bad place to store only racquets. It should also contain the small things that keep one minor failure from becoming the whole tennis session.

My backup kit is deliberately boring:

• one unopened overgrip
• finishing tape
• a cheap pair of scissors
• a pencil for writing the date on the wrapper

The overgrip is the important part. A grip can feel fine during warm-up and then turn slippery once the court gets hot. If the replacement is at home, it might as well be in another city. The finishing tape keeps the new grip from unravelling, and the scissors are easier than trying to tear tape with my teeth like a person in a low-budget survival show.

I keep everything in the same small pocket and check it when I repack the bag. If I use the overgrip, I add a replacement to the next shopping list. The kit takes almost no room, but it means a worn grip is a five-minute repair instead of a decision about whether to play around it.