Tennis String

The importance of tennis strings

Just as important as your tennis racquet are your tennis strings. Tennis strings come in all different types and colors. The main categories of strings are natural gut, synthetic gut, and nylon.

Natural gut tennis strings offer the best resiliency or "feel" of the three but are very prone to stretching and breaking easily. These strings are usually for people with the money to afford frequent re-stringing and the expensive price tag of natural gut tennis strings.

The next option and most commonly used, are synthetic gut tennis strings. These strings offer almost equal feel as that of natural gut but last much longer. Synthetic gut has evolved so much that most professionals cannot tell the difference between natural gut and synthetic if not told beforehand. Synthetic gut strings can support players of all levels and are widely recommended.

Finally, nylon strings are what usually come pre-strung on cheaper Tennis Racquets. Nylon strings offer the least resiliency but last the longest. These strings are mostly for beginners who don't wish to restring their racquets very often. One last type of tennis string are hybrid strings which mix two different materials to create longevity without sacrificing feel. The main strings are usually strung with stiff strings such as kevlar or metal, and the cross strings with more resilient material such as synthetic gut.

After you've picked out the type of tennis strings you want for your racquet, the time comes to choose the gauge and tension. The gauge of tennis strings refers to its thickness. The most common gauge for beginners is 15 to 16 gauge strings. For more advanced players and players that don't mind more frequent re-stringing, 17 and 18 gauge is preferred. A higher gauge means thinner strings which add more spin and power. Thicker strings obviously last longer and so are used for beginner racquets.

Every racquet has a recommended tension for tennis strings. Usually the rule of thumb is that higher tensions give more control due to tighter strings and lower tensions give more power. Most players should be safe with stringing their racquets within the recommended range.

If you're looking for more information on tennis strings, check out the resource sites we've linked below.

And be sure to check out our pages about Tennis Ball Launcher, Tennis Racquets, Tennis Racquet Reviews, Tennis Balls, and Tennis Apparel elsewhere on this site.