Professional players love the spin and control they get from polyester-based tennis strings. Stiff in nature, the polyester strings allow pros to control all the power they generate on big strokes by deadening the response of the racquet.
With professional players flocking to polyester strings over the past decade, their popularity at the amateur levels also soared. But what is best for the world's elite might not bring the best performance to those of us playing at clubs, parks and public courts. Amateurs rarely hit with the same amount of power as professional players. Even on the occasions we generate big power, we don't do it with the consistency of the pros. With that in mind a softer and more forgiving string offers many benefits for beginning through intermediate level players.
Multifilaments such as Tecnifibre's NRG2 provide more power and a much softer response than stiff polyester strings. The result is more comfort at impact and less fatigue over the course of a match.
“String choice is very important for a beginning or amateur player,” said Dave Dorsey, US National Sales Manager of Tecnifibre. “Many amateur players have issues with the mechanics of their swing, they struggle to generate necessary power and they are playing with lighter-weight, larger head size racquets. Polyurethane (PU) Multifilament string is going to provide many benefits to counteract these issues.”
To understand the differences in string types we turned to Tennis Warehouse University professor Crawford Lindsey. “There's one single property of a string that tells you everything you need to know about power and comfort compared to other strings. That property is stiffness. The stiffer the string, the less power and more shock, period,” Lindsey said.
Softer strings allow the stringbed of your racquet to deflect more easily and that opens up the sweetspot. Not only do you get more power on your best shots, but you also get better comfort and power on mishits.
Multifilaments are composed of hundreds or thousands of ultra pliable, elbow-friendly fibers and are bundled together with flexible resins like PU. These filaments are used to replicate the flex and response found in the muscular fibers of natural gut strings.
“PU multifilament string, first and foremost, provides a higher degree of shock absorption at ball impact,” Dorsey said. “When you combine less-than-stellar mechanics with a lighter-weight, larger head size racquet, vibration and shock become a real problem. Polyester monofilament string only compounds the problem of shock. Over a one-and-a-half hour match, a PU multifilament string will absorb more shock and generate 22 percent less fatigue than a polyester string.”
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At Tennis Warehouse we do not recommend using a polyester based monofilament string for racquets with a strung weight of less than 11 ounces (311 grams). Lighter racquets can greatly benefit from softer strings such as multifilaments since the racquet is not heavy enough to absorb as much shock.
“A softer string takes in and gives back more energy,” Lindsey said. “A softer string is more comfortable because it uses less force over a longer dwell time to rebound the ball. However, since a stiffer string has less power, a player may be able to swing harder, hitting the ball faster. But there's a big price to pay for that extra speed – more energy input and even larger impact shock.”
Multifilament strings also tend to be much better at holding tension. You should find a more consistent response over the course of the string's life with it in your racquet compared to polyester strings. With polyester strings we recommend restringing your racquet with a fresh set of string every three to four weeks to get the best playability.
More frequent restringing is even better with polyester monofilaments due to their increased tension loss. On the tour players are using fresh strings for every match with some players switching to fresh strings at every ball change. Obviously this is not cost effective for amateur players, but if you are using polyester strings restringing once a month will get you the best performance from the stringbed.
With a multifilament, players can generally restring in a year as many times as they play in a week. For instance, if you play four times a week, plan on restringing four times a year for the best performance.
To learn more, head to Tennis-Warehouse.com.