which is the most practical tennis strings to be used?
what is the difference between natural gut, synthetic gut and polyester? which is the most affordable, longlasting and fit for a beginner? what brand is good?
Tennis strings differ in many ways, such as price, material, durability, construction and gauge or caliber.
Respecting material, natural gut is made from cow intestines (and rumors say back in the days cat intestines were used, both of course with a complete complex process to get the tennis string), polyester strings obviously from polyester, and synthetic strings are mostly nylon based.
For price, natural gut is very expensive (maybe because of the making process) next comes polyester and finally synthetic ones.
For durability I’d say polyester strings come first, then synthetics and finally natural gut (it is very sensitive to moisture changes). Kevlar strings are the most durable, but as kevlar is metal based you must reduce your regular string tension by some means. Otherwise you may fracture you racquet’s frame.
For construction, natural gut and synthetic strings are multi-filament made, meaning they make very thin threads and join them together to make the string (just the way a rope is made). On the other hand, polyester is a monofilament. This means that during it’s construction the string is extruded (just the same as when you get the tooth paste out of the tube, just one thick thread). That’s why polyester is much more durable than synthetic and natural.
Another aspect that has to do with durability, is the gauge of the string, or in simple words: it’s thickness. Strings have a number ranging between 15 and 18, and the lower the number (15) the thicker the string, and viceversa. This is because string thickness is measured in fractions of inch, so a 15 gauge is really one fifteenth of an inch thick (1/15). If you divide by a greater number (1/17 or 1/18) you’ll obviously get a smaller thickness number. Some strings have an L attached to the number, this means “long” and is only a half measure more. For example, a 15L gauge is simply a 1/15.5 thickness string, and it would be placed between a 15 and a 16 gauge string.
Final words: Pros use natural gut because of the sensibility it gives to their racquet and it’s excellent tension maintenance; however, gut is very sensitive to moisture changes and quite expensive. Polyester strings are used to increase durability but tension maintenance and sensibility is not as good as gut or synthetic. Most people use polyester only on the mains, and hybrid their racquet with another synthetic string in the crosses.
I play with polyester strings (head ultra tour string in 17 gauge) in mains and crosses because of it’s durability and because personally, I can’t tell the difference in sensibility compared to the synthetics, and synthetics break too quickly for me.
Natural gut is way off my budget, but if you’d like to experience a great change in sensibility try the babolat x-cel premium on the crosses (multifilament string said to match gut’s sensibility), with the babolat hurricane (polyester) on the mains.
DragonKraft presents its new ecological and natural resin in replacement of polyester