Strings · Gear Guide
How to Choose Tennis Strings: A Player's Guide
Your racket gets all the attention, but the strings are the only part of your equipment that ever touches the ball. Here is how to choose them without a materials science degree.
Most players agonize over which racket to buy, then string it with whatever the shop has on hand. That is backwards. Two identical rackets strung differently can feel like completely different pieces of equipment. If you have ever borrowed a friend's racket and thought "how do you play with this?" — the strings were probably half the answer.
The good news: the string market looks overwhelming, but almost everything on the wall falls into four families. Once you know which family suits your game, choosing a specific string becomes easy.
The four string families
Natural gut — the benchmark
Made from cow intestine (yes, really), natural gut has been the gold standard for over a century. It offers the best combination of power, comfort, and tension maintenance of any string ever made. It is what much of the pro tour uses, usually in a hybrid.
The catch is price — natural gut typically costs three to four times what a synthetic costs — and durability in wet or humid conditions. For most club players, it is a luxury rather than a necessity, but if you have arm problems and the budget, nothing is gentler.
Multifilament — comfort without the price tag
Multifilaments are built from hundreds or thousands of tiny fibres twisted together, deliberately imitating natural gut's structure. They are soft, powerful, and comfortable — the best choice for players with tennis elbow or shoulder issues who do not want to pay for gut.
The trade-off is durability and control. Big hitters and frequent string breakers will chew through multifilament quickly, and players who generate a lot of their own power may find it launchy.
Synthetic gut — the honest all-rounder
Despite the name, synthetic gut has nothing to do with natural gut. It is a solid nylon core wrapped in one or more outer layers — inexpensive, predictable, and middle-of-the-road in every category. If you play once a week, do not break strings, and have no arm trouble, a quality synthetic gut is genuinely all you need. There is no shame in it.
Polyester — control for big swings
Polyester (often just called "poly") is a stiff monofilament that took over the pro game because it lets players swing at full speed and still keep the ball in the court. It offers exceptional control, spin potential, and durability.
It is also the most misused string in tennis. Poly is low-powered and stiff, which means it punishes slow, short swings — and it loses its playing characteristics well before it breaks. A poly that has "gone dead" is a wooden, arm-jarring plank. Unless you have long, fast strokes and restring regularly, full poly is probably working against you.
Hybrids — the best of two worlds
A hybrid setup uses one string type in the mains (the vertical strings) and another in the crosses. The classic combination — poly mains with gut or multifilament crosses — gives you poly's control and spin with a softer, more comfortable response. If you like poly but your elbow does not, a hybrid is usually the answer.
Rule of thumb: choose comfort first, durability second, and control last — unless you are a genuinely big hitter. The most common stringing mistake in club tennis is playing a stiff poly at high tension because a pro does.
Quick reference
| String type | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Natural gut | Comfort seekers, arm issues, feel players | Price, humidity sensitivity |
| Multifilament | Comfort on a budget, doubles players, seniors | Durability, can feel launchy |
| Synthetic gut | Recreational players, value seekers | Master of nothing |
| Polyester | Big hitters, string breakers, spin players | Stiffness, goes dead quickly |
| Hybrid | Players who want control and comfort | Slightly more complex to dial in |
Gauge: thinner bites, thicker lasts
String gauge is thickness, and the numbering runs backwards: a higher number means a thinner string. Most players use 16 gauge (about 1.30 mm) or 17 gauge (about 1.25 mm).
- Thinner strings (17, 18) give more feel, more spin, and a livelier response — but break sooner.
- Thicker strings (15, 16) last longer and offer a bit more control, at the cost of some feel.
If you never break strings, try going one gauge thinner than whatever you use now. Most players are pleasantly surprised.
Tension: looser than you think
Every racket has a recommended tension range printed on the frame, usually somewhere around 48–58 lbs (22–26 kg). Within that range, the trade-off is simple: lower tension gives more power and comfort; higher tension gives more control.
The trend over the past two decades has been steadily downward — modern strings, especially polys, play better at lower tensions than the old "60 lbs for control" folklore suggests. If you play poly anywhere near the top of your racket's range, dropping 4–6 lbs will likely make it more comfortable without costing you control.
When in doubt, start in the middle of the recommended range with a synthetic or multifilament, and the lower third of the range with poly. Adjust in small steps of about 2 lbs from there.
When to restring
Strings do not have to break to be finished. They lose tension and resilience from the moment they leave the machine, and dead strings cost you both performance and comfort.
The old guideline still works: restring as many times per year as you play per week, with a minimum of once a year even if the racket mostly lives in a closet. Play three times a week? Restring roughly every four months. Poly players should be more aggressive — many polys go dead within 10–20 hours of play, long before they snap.
Signs it is time: the strings move around and stay out of place, the ball sprays long with no change in your swing, the response feels boardy, or your arm aches after playing when it did not before.
The short version
- Arm trouble or comfort first? Multifilament (or natural gut if budget allows).
- Casual player, no complaints? Synthetic gut, middle tension, done.
- Fast, full swings and broken strings? Polyester — strung lower than you think, replaced more often than you would like.
- Want poly control without the harshness? Hybrid with softer crosses.
Strings are the cheapest meaningful upgrade in tennis. A thoughtful string choice costs a fraction of a new racket and changes how every single ball feels coming off your strings — which is to say, every ball you hit.