The last 20-30 years has shown us how far racket technology has come in the sport of Tennis. However, the last 10-15 years has had a similar impact on the sport with the advancement in string technology. Not just the major companies we all have heard of, new emerging companies have sprouted recently as well as older ones coming back from the brink.
I can remember a particular experience I had with trying out new strings in 2011-2012and how it really really impacted what I put in my racket from that day moving forward. It was between two strings of the same brand.
Babolat RPM Blast (https://www.babolat.com/us/rpm-blast-12m/241101.html)
Babolat Pro Hurricane Tour (Can't find it, became RPM Hurricane now??)
I tried RPM Blast because there was some pretty big hype behind Rafa Nadal using it. I remember commentators speaking about the string and esentially calling it, almost "cheating" for lack of a better term. This string was pretty revolutionary in it's time as the cross-section cut of the string was not circular. They said it was an "octagon" shape.
I tried the string and really really disliked it! So much so, I cut the $17 string out of my racket within hrs of stringing it up and trying it out.
On a whim, seeing it as the next best string to try, I bought the Babolat Hurricane Tour. I didn't have time to try it in a practice so I made the silly decision of the first trial of the string to ben for an adult flex league match. I had no idea who I was playing and the reputation they had. This match became one for the tennis memories! I beat the #1 player in the flex league. This opponent had been doing quite well in the Atlamta league for years. He was pretty much dominating our local Atlanta adult league and winning majority of his seasons played. I didn't think much or it at the time but it was a pretty big win for me being so green in the league.
The Pro Hurricane Tour played beautifully and sparked a pretty interesting foundation for finding the best Polyester string for my game. This then took a turn into a hybrid between Polyester and synthetic gut. However, the synthetic gut string would pop rather quickly and not give me the full value of the more costly textured polyester. Eventually these trials concluded into a combination of 2 different poly strings in a hybrid format.
Rolling back to 2010-2011 I was trying a few options as I started training for the upcoming Futures/National events while wrapping up my degree at Georgia Tech. It ranged from Kirschbaum Polys (used in college 05-07), Synthetic guts (lasted just a couple hrs if that), and finally a string I liked, Babolat Pro Hurricane (not the Tour version mentioned above). I also tried some Wilson strings but couldn't quite get the feeling to work for my game. The Pro Hurricane Tour combination lasted for a while and likely made up the bulk of my 2011-2014 playing time.
As time passed, before I stopped competing full-time, I landed on Tecnifibre Black code. This string wasn't as hyped up as Tecnifibre wasn't one of the most popular brands on tour. However, the cross-section cut on this string was a pentagon, 5-sided!
This string worked amazing as well and became my go to as a full bed of Black code on my racket for a couple years (2014-16). While coaching at SCAD, I built a relationship with the emerging tennis company, Diadem. After a call with a rep, they sent a sample pack of some of their best performance polyester string. The team ended up liking the Diadem Solstice string the best. By this point, we are not in polygons anymore for string texture. The Diadem Solstice had the cross section of an asterisk (*). I tried out the Diadem Flash string and loved the feeling of it. It has a softer feeling to it (not textured, but the traditional round shape) and gave some solid durability as well. Since 2020 to date, the go to string combination is such:
Racket: Wilson Pro Staff 97 CV
String: Diadem Flash 16g (Mains), Tecnifibre Black Code 16g (Cross), both at 53lbs
Total Weight: 336g (11.85 oz) with small amounts of lead tape at 3, 6, 9 and a Wilson "W" dampener.
This racket feels awesome!
I recommend combinations of hybrid strings to students of mine (Youth-Adult) customized to their specific gamestyle and what string would be beneficial to them. The list below is not too extensive as I'm only recommending and listing strings I've tried and liked.
Polyester Recommendations:
Tecnifibre Black code
Diadem Flash
Babolat Pro Hurricane Tour
Babolat Pro Hurricane
Diadem Solstice
Synthetic Gut Recommendations:
Prince SynGut Duraflex
Babolat Synthetic Gut
Monofilament Recommendations:
Diadem Evolution
Other Considerations:
Wilson NXT
Strings I won't try again (nothing against them, just didn't like the feeling):
Solinco
Luxilon
Strings make a pretty significant difference in the game, if they didn't, there wouldn't be many companies making them with such variations and types.
Leave a comment or ask a question regarding what you use or if you would like recommendations on what to use!
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