Strings play a huge part in racquet performance. Landing on the right string can be a complicated process, but here are the 6 most popular options for racquet strings. Read further to choose the best combination for your game.
Multifilament - Multifilament is soft type of tennis string that’s known for being powerful, comfortable, and providing a pleasantly “live” feeling at contact. They are most popular among beginners and intermediates, as well as advanced players with “old-school” styles of play. Multis maintain tension well and are easy on your joints, but they comparatively lack spin potential and durability for advanced modern tennis. If you’re a player that doesn’t break strings often, hits mostly flat, and relies on good feel around the court, multis are an excellent option.
My Multifilament Recommendations: There are hundreds of multis on the market. I recommend the following multis: Head Velocity MLT, Iso-Speed Control & Professional Classic, and Wilson NXT. With regards to tension, I recommend stringing multis slightly lower than the maximum tension recommended by your racquet manufacturer. I.e. If your racquet’s tension range is 50-60 lb, consider stringing between 55 and 57 lbs.
Polyester - Polyester string is a a hard type of tennis string that’s known for providing excellent spin, control, and a more “muted” feeling at contact. Poly is highly durable but provides comparatively poor tension maintenance. Its stiffness can cause injury for players with sensitive elbows, wrists, and shoulders. Polyester strings are most popular among advanced players with long swings and heavy topspin groundstrokes. If you have no history of injury, and you can generate heavy spin and power on all shots, then polyester is an excellent option.
My Polyester recommendations: Like multifilament, there are too many polyester strings to choose from. I prefer round, control-oriented polies like Luxilon 4G, Yonex Polytour Fire, Kirschbaum Max Power, and Signum Pro Poly Plasma. Shaped and/or rough polies like Babolat RPM Blast, Luxilon ALU Power Rough, and Solinco Hyper G are popular options for players that value spin potential above predictability. With regards to tension, I recommend stringing within near the lowest tension recommended by your racquet manufacturer. I.e. If your racquet’s tension range is 50-60 lb, consider stringing between 47 and 53 lbs.
Natural Gut - Natural gut a uniquely powerful, comfortable, and lively string at a premium cost. It’s not too spin friendly, but it is the best option for joint pain and tension maintenance. Gut usually costs about $50 per set - more than twice as much as any other string. Gut does not perform well in very humid environments or on damp clay. Also, gut is a natural fiber that can unravel on it’s loose ends, so players who accidentally hit the frame on their shots run the risk of causing the knot to break. If you’re a player who hits consistent, clean shots, and can afford the most comfortable playing experience money can buy, then natural gut is the best option.
My natural gut recommendations: Babolat VS Natural Gut and Wilson Natural Gut are both excellent offerings. Gut is very stretchy and is usually strung at high tensions. I recommend stringing close to the maximum tension recommended by your racquet manufacturer. I.e. If your racquet’s tension range is 50-60 lbs, I recommend stringing between 57-63 lbs.
Synthetic Gut - Synthetic gut is a low-budget nylon string offered with slight variations across manufacturers. Although you get more spin than you would with multi and more comfort than you would with polyester, you end up with a string that lacks any desirable characteristics.
My Synthetic Gut Recommendations: None. Synthetic gut is a budget option for a casual player. If you play at least once per week, consider multi/gut for comfort or polyester for control and spin.
Standard Hybrid - A standard hybrid string set up involves stringing a racquet with polyester in the mains and multifilament or gut in the crosses. The strings that go up and down the racquet are called the mains and the strings that weave across the racquet are called the crosses. As a player, you will predominantly feel the strings in the mains, while the strings in the crosses provide secondary benefits. A standard hybrid will give you much of the spin and control you’d experience with polyester, but with a secondary benefit of added comfort.
My Standard hybrid recommendations: Since the crosses provide only secondary benefits, multifilaments will do a similarly good job softening the string bed compared with natural gut. Although some professionals use natural gut in the crosses, I find that use of gut to be a waste of money. With regards to tension, I recommend stringing polyester in the mains within equal to or slightly higher than lowest tension recommended by your racquet manufacturer and the crosses at the same tension. I.e. If your racquet’s tension range is 50-60 lb, I recommend stringing both mains and crosses between 50 and 53 lbs.
Reverse Hybrid - In a reverse hybrid, multi or gut goes in the mains and polyester goes in the crosses. This combination has been favored by Roger Federer, Serena Williams, and Novak Djokovic, who all use natural gut in the mains. This combination will give you the extremely comfortable feeling of multifilament or natural gut with a boost in spin from the polyester.
My Reverse Hybrid recommendations: If you’re going to do this combination, use a premium multifilament or, even better, natural gut. This is an expensive way to go but really luxurious if you can afford to restring frequently. One recommendation here is to use a rounded polyester string (some polyesters are square or hexagonal) to allow the gut to slide along the crosses for better spin production. With regards to tension, I recommend stringing gut or multis around 5% lower than the maximum tension recommended by your racquet manufacturer and the crosses 10% lower than that. I.e. If your racquet’s tension range is 50-60 lb, I recommend the mains at 57 lb and crosses at 52 lbs.