Importance of tennis strings

Tennisstrings

The importance of a tennis string is often (mistakenly) underestimated.
Tennis players often spend a lot of time and money looking for the perfect tennis racket, equipped with the latest technology, and then string it with a random (and often unsuitable) tennis string.
It is often said that you play better with a good tennis string in a bad tennis racket, than with a bad tennis string in a good tennis racket! The importance of a tennis string is best demonstrated by the fact that the tennis string is the only material which comes in direct contact with the tennis ball!
The actual playing characteristics of tennis rackets are primarily defined by the tennis string and the stringing tension!

When choosing a tennis string, you have to take into account the following qualities:

• Long lifespan properties
• Price to quality ratio
• Playability (a term which covers the terms control, feeling and power)

Save money

Sadly, not all the qualities mentioned above can be present in one and the same tennis string. The longer the lifespan of a tennis string, the thicker it normally is, and so the less power, control and feeling it will give.
You can save money by buying strings in bulk, on a reel instead of per set.
When we place the 'ideal qualities' of the five kinds of tennis strings mentioned above in a table and quote them on a scale from 1 to 10 (= low to high), we come up to the following (very general) conclusion:

kind of string	playability	lifespan	cost
natural gut	10	1-2	10
nylon	5-9	3-7	2-9
polyester	3-4	6-8	4-8
kevlar	1	10	3-4
hybrids	6-9	5-8	6-9