What To String Your Tennis Racket With
There are many choices to consider when getting strings for your tennis racket. Materials, thickness, and tension all play a role in your role as a tennis player. Let’s break down the racket string you need and consider each detail.
Material
The first thing to decide is what type of material your string is made out of. Natural Gut, Nylon (commonly referred to as synthetic gut), Polyester, and Kevlar are the most common types. Each one offers distinct advantages and disadvantages.
Natural Gut
This string provides the highest quality of feel, the best control, the least amount of vibrations, and if properly cared for holds the tension and playability the longest. It is also takes the most care, tends to fray before it breaks, and is the most expensive of the options.
And yes, it is actually made from the gut of a cow. A part of the intestines, actually. Because of this, the variance between natural gut strings is very large, particularly from manufacturer to manufacturer. Different cows from different regions provides for differences in their own anatomy, some having guts with higher tensile strength than others, while some have softer guts than others. The tennis racket string manufacturers all have their own sources of cows they choose from, so if you find a string you like you are best off sticking with that particular brand to ensure the most consistency possible.
This is among the most popular string for advanced and professional players due to the superb playability of the string. There is a reason one of the biggest selling points of all other strings is “feels more like natural gut”.
Nylon/Synthetic Gut
Nylon is the most common material used in string manufacturing today. When players are referring to synthetic gut, they are usually speaking of a type of nylon material. There are many different grades of nylon that produce many different types of string. It is the most variable material and can be manufactured in a variety of ways to produce a variety of positives and negatives.
There are strings that are made to feel softer, while others are made to be stiffer. Some are designed to help produce spin, while others are as smooth as can be for durability. Whatever your desire is, Nylon is a great base material for any string you choose.
Polyester
Polyester is a good, durable string that helps provide control. It is common to see polyester strung on the mains (up and down/vertical strings) while another, softer string like natural gut is strung on the crosses (left and right/horizontal strings). The advancement in using polyester as a base material for tennis racket strings has grown to be more common now than ever.
Kevlar
Yes, Kevlar. That stuff that helps stop a bullet. I don’t think I’d try it with a tennis racket, though. Kevlar is the most durable type of string material used today. It is also the stiffest, least powerful, and least comfortable string. I’d only recommend Kevlar to a chronic string breaker, and even then I’d only string the mains with this and recommend a different material for the crosses.
You can, however, string your entire racket with Kevlar. I’d expect some discomfort with this, but at least your strings would last a long time!
Thickness
Tennis strings come in thicknesses with designated gauges from 15-19. There are half sizes in between 15-18 that are designated with an ‘L’ (the L is for light). So, 15 is the thickest, then 15L, then 16, then 16L, then 17, then 17L, then 18, and then 19. 19 starts at a thickness of 1.00mm and 15 can be as thick as 1.49mm.
The thicker the string, the longer it will last. The thinner the string, the more feel and playability you will have. A thinner string can help you with spin, because the thinner string can dig into the ball more to create more grip on it upon contact.
The different thicknesses will definitely give you a different feel, and finding that sweet spot is mostly a matter of trial and error.
Tension
Each racket has a recommended string tension printed on it. It is best to start in the middle of the recommendation and adjusting from there.
Strings with a higher tension (strung tighter), will provide for more control but less power. String with lower tension provide the opposite, more power but generally less control. The reasons are as follows: When the ball connects with the strings, it is in contact for a specific period of time.
Tighter racket strings will shorten that time, allowing the direction of the ball to have less variance than if the ball is in contact with the string for a longer period of time. This will result in overall more consistency with your shots, ultimately providing for less errant shots and more control.
A looser string will lengthen that time, allowing for more of a trampoline effect, which results in a more powerful shot. Because the trampoline effect adds more variables, the shots aren’t as consistent and will vary, and generally provide less consistency and control. This is sometimes negated by the fact that looser strings do give a bigger sweet spot, limiting your ‘dead’ hits some.
Let’s Wrap Up this (Racket) String Theory
Strings are just one item you need in your tennis bag. The details of string can change your game. The variables to consider when deciding on a new string for your racket are material, thickness, and tension. These can and will change with different rackets and different playing conditions, such as the type of courts and the weather. It is recommended to start with the most middle of the road you can with all of these variables, and changing things one at a time from there. Starting with a basic synthetic gut (nylon), with a 16L or 17 gauge, and a tension right in the middle of the manufacturers recommendation will give you a baseline. Feel and performance, durability and playability are the major factors you want to consider. Make sure to have fun playing tennis while testing out these many possibilities!
