All Types of Tennis Racquet strings

Introduction

The strings are the soul and life of a racquet. Often people tend to ignore the fact that choosing the right strings is as important as selecting the right racquet. Strings type vary and players have a variety of options to choose and use the strings which sit right for the game. Over the year's strings have developed a lot hence we’ll go into details of each string type. There are 5 types of strings namely

• Natural gut
• Synthetic gut
• Multifilament strings
• Durable Polyester strings

There is always a compromise between playability and durability, with natural gut and multifilament strings being the most playable and Poly strings being the most durable. This has led to the current fashion for combining different strings on the mains (vertical) and crosses (horizontal). The classic example of this is Roger Federer, whose Champions Choice strings consist of a strong poly and natural gut. Rafa Nadal uses a soft poly string all round (Babolat RPM Blast).

Playability (natural gut and multifilament's)

These are the type of strings which are playable and snap back quickly upon ball impact. The material, construction, thickness will all affect the playability of the strings.

Some of the multifilament's are more than adequate substitute and are more durable than a natural gut. They are usually a better alternative to natural gut for majority of the players.

Durability (poly and Kevlar strings)

Unfortunately, increased durability in tennis strings comes at the expense of playability. Kevlar is the stiffest and most durable string type. It has excellent tension holding properties but at the same time it's one of the harshest strings on the arm and can cause tennis elbow. Polyester are mostly used by all the pros in ATP for example the great Rafael Nadal. Polyester have low elasticity and feel stiffer. They are significantly more durable.

All round (synthetic)

These are a good choice if the player doesn’t know what is the requirement. The synthetic strings are mostly used by club players who tend to play for fun rather than professional. They are made of nylon. The nylon helps in reduction of tension loss.