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What makes a quality tennis string?
After talking to many tennis enthusiasts over the past months about their perception on tennis strings I thought it would be time to write a quick intro into the world of strings. But before I dive into this only for "tennis nuts" exciting topic I would like to quickly state why I believe I gained some extra knowledge in this particular field of interest.
Having worked in the tennis industry for over 20 years has always kept my interest in new tennis and tennis related products like rackets, shoes, new innovative teaching tools but also the evolution of tennis strings. About 18 months ago I thought it would be interesting to dig somewhat deeper and attempt to find manufacturers from around the world that would be willing in providing me with tennis string samples. 12 months later we had tested all types of strings - from basic Nylon to Kevlar strings - from manufacturers from around the world. To our surprise, most of the strings that we received were mediocre at best. Even manufacturers from Germany (you would think that the Germans would have "perfected" the art in manufacturing something as simple as tennis strings) did not live up to the standards that we were looking for.
A tennis strings is a tennis string – or is it?
There are people who believe that although strings are sold from a variety of companies, all tennis strings are pretty much the same. Even though they might have heard that there are synthetic gut and polyester strings, they believe it will have no or very little impact on their game. I would like to argue that the matter is not that simple especially when considering that over the past two decades tennis strings have gone through a long and complicated evolution resulting from advancements in string engineering and manufacturing technology.
In general, each string type has its strengths and weaknesses, and some fit one type of player more than another. Most importantly, within each string type there are definite distinctions in quality. For a quick introduction about various types of strings, our friends at Wikipedia have done a great job in summarizing different types of strings (go to www.wikipedia.com and search for tennis strings).
The most used strings are:
Developing poly strings has become a science, which is driven by finding the ultimate mix of chemicals that are added to the polyester to change some of its negative characteristics. Thus, there are currently only a very limited number of pure polyester strings on the market and many have become co-polyesters due to its additives added in the production process. Furthermore, manufacturers use very particular heating/cooling procedures that also have a strong impact on the string's final playing characteristics.
So what makes a quality poly string?
The very first factor we looked at in our string testing was how the string preformed during the stringing process. Two out of three strings immediately disqualified by the way they strung. One could say the strings had "spaghetti"-like quality to them. During the stretching process, the strings got longer and longer and appeared to be too soft to ever hold tension.
Once we took the "left over" strings on the court for testing, we felt one part of these strings were much too stiff. By nature, pure polyester is a stiff material, which has always been a problem for tennis string manufacturers. Stiff strings can be very stressful on a player's arm and can be a significant factor in developing tennis elbow and similar injuries. Additives, as mentioned before, can reduce the stiffness.
Another part of our tested strings felt very good for the first 2 hours but lost significant tension thereafter. The result was that the string either felt "dead" or became very lively. Both characteristics are not welcome. The "dead" string will likely affect your arm negatively whereas the lively string will result in lack of control and confidence in your strokes. This is particularly true for players with high racket speeds.
The last factor that disqualified some of the strings was the string's durability. There are certain basic guidelines of how long a polyester string should last before it breaks at a certain gauge (string thickness) for a particular level of player. You would have to assume that for the open level player a 17-gauge string (approximately 1.25 mm thick) should last at least 5 hours, which many of these strings did not achieve.
After testing tennis strings for about a year, we finally found three different types of co-polyester strings that qualified under these basic but important standards: 1) tolerable level of stiffness, 2) meets or exceeds standard durability expectations and 3) acceptable tension stability. We were able to work with a manufacturer that had the know-how to develop these strings to our liking.
Although all 3 strings meet these standards they play uniquely different in their own right: One provides an optimum balance between power and control, the other one is considered a low-powered string that provides an additional level of control and great durability, and the last one provides additional spin potential due to its uniquely triangular shaped structure.
In summary, finding a qualified tennis string manufacturer and thus quality strings is not is not as easy as one might think. Many well known companies like Wilson, Head, Babolat, Luxilon or Tecnifibre have the ability to draw the customer's attention to their strings by shier name recognition but not necessary the stand-alone quality of their strings. Not to say that these strings are bad quality. In fact Luxilon produces one of the highest quality and arguably best co-polyester and by most professional tennis players played string on the market. But I would like to argue that currently there are also a few tennis string companies on the market that are not able to share the spot light in this industry although they provide top quality strings and more importantly at a much cheaper price. Tennis insiders might know companies like Tier One Sports, Weiss Cannon, or Signum Pro, but the general public has not taken notice yet.
My suggestion to the avid tennis player who has not yet taken a look outside the mainstream, well marketed tennis string manufacturers: Its time to give these smaller brands a try and surprise yourself about some of their strings' exceptional quality sold at very affordable prices! If this article makes you want to venture out and consider a new product you might want to try these tennis strings.
After talking to many tennis enthusiasts over the past months about their perception on tennis strings I thought it would be time to write a quick intro into the world of strings. But before I dive into this only for "tennis nuts" exciting topic I would like to quickly state why I believe I gained some extra knowledge in this particular field of interest.
Having worked in the tennis industry for over 20 years has always kept my interest in new tennis and tennis related products like rackets, shoes, new innovative teaching tools but also the evolution of tennis strings. About 18 months ago I thought it would be interesting to dig somewhat deeper and attempt to find manufacturers from around the world that would be willing in providing me with tennis string samples. 12 months later we had tested all types of strings - from basic Nylon to Kevlar strings - from manufacturers from around the world. To our surprise, most of the strings that we received were mediocre at best. Even manufacturers from Germany (you would think that the Germans would have "perfected" the art in manufacturing something as simple as tennis strings) did not live up to the standards that we were looking for.
A tennis strings is a tennis string – or is it?
There are people who believe that although strings are sold from a variety of companies, all tennis strings are pretty much the same. Even though they might have heard that there are synthetic gut and polyester strings, they believe it will have no or very little impact on their game. I would like to argue that the matter is not that simple especially when considering that over the past two decades tennis strings have gone through a long and complicated evolution resulting from advancements in string engineering and manufacturing technology.
In general, each string type has its strengths and weaknesses, and some fit one type of player more than another. Most importantly, within each string type there are definite distinctions in quality. For a quick introduction about various types of strings, our friends at Wikipedia have done a great job in summarizing different types of strings (go to www.wikipedia.com and search for tennis strings).
The most used strings are:
- Natural Gut
- Synthetic Gut
- Multifilament
- Nylon
- Polyester
Developing poly strings has become a science, which is driven by finding the ultimate mix of chemicals that are added to the polyester to change some of its negative characteristics. Thus, there are currently only a very limited number of pure polyester strings on the market and many have become co-polyesters due to its additives added in the production process. Furthermore, manufacturers use very particular heating/cooling procedures that also have a strong impact on the string's final playing characteristics.
So what makes a quality poly string?
The very first factor we looked at in our string testing was how the string preformed during the stringing process. Two out of three strings immediately disqualified by the way they strung. One could say the strings had "spaghetti"-like quality to them. During the stretching process, the strings got longer and longer and appeared to be too soft to ever hold tension.
Once we took the "left over" strings on the court for testing, we felt one part of these strings were much too stiff. By nature, pure polyester is a stiff material, which has always been a problem for tennis string manufacturers. Stiff strings can be very stressful on a player's arm and can be a significant factor in developing tennis elbow and similar injuries. Additives, as mentioned before, can reduce the stiffness.
Another part of our tested strings felt very good for the first 2 hours but lost significant tension thereafter. The result was that the string either felt "dead" or became very lively. Both characteristics are not welcome. The "dead" string will likely affect your arm negatively whereas the lively string will result in lack of control and confidence in your strokes. This is particularly true for players with high racket speeds.
The last factor that disqualified some of the strings was the string's durability. There are certain basic guidelines of how long a polyester string should last before it breaks at a certain gauge (string thickness) for a particular level of player. You would have to assume that for the open level player a 17-gauge string (approximately 1.25 mm thick) should last at least 5 hours, which many of these strings did not achieve.
After testing tennis strings for about a year, we finally found three different types of co-polyester strings that qualified under these basic but important standards: 1) tolerable level of stiffness, 2) meets or exceeds standard durability expectations and 3) acceptable tension stability. We were able to work with a manufacturer that had the know-how to develop these strings to our liking.
Although all 3 strings meet these standards they play uniquely different in their own right: One provides an optimum balance between power and control, the other one is considered a low-powered string that provides an additional level of control and great durability, and the last one provides additional spin potential due to its uniquely triangular shaped structure.
In summary, finding a qualified tennis string manufacturer and thus quality strings is not is not as easy as one might think. Many well known companies like Wilson, Head, Babolat, Luxilon or Tecnifibre have the ability to draw the customer's attention to their strings by shier name recognition but not necessary the stand-alone quality of their strings. Not to say that these strings are bad quality. In fact Luxilon produces one of the highest quality and arguably best co-polyester and by most professional tennis players played string on the market. But I would like to argue that currently there are also a few tennis string companies on the market that are not able to share the spot light in this industry although they provide top quality strings and more importantly at a much cheaper price. Tennis insiders might know companies like Tier One Sports, Weiss Cannon, or Signum Pro, but the general public has not taken notice yet.
My suggestion to the avid tennis player who has not yet taken a look outside the mainstream, well marketed tennis string manufacturers: Its time to give these smaller brands a try and surprise yourself about some of their strings' exceptional quality sold at very affordable prices! If this article makes you want to venture out and consider a new product you might want to try these tennis strings.
Posted in: Tennis
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