How to find your tennis string setup
You just got a new racquet and want to pick your own strings instead of the ones it came with. Or you have played the same setup for months and are curious what else is out there.
We have been there. We played full bed Wilson NXT at 54 lbs for most of our tennis, tried full poly at 50 lbs once and found it too springy, then moved to a poly and multi hybrid. It took a few restrings to get there. Here is how we would do it again, with less guessing.
If you want a setup to start with, use String Finder to find one. If you play a Yonex EZONE or VCORE, a Wilson Blade 98, or a Babolat Pure Aero or Pure Drive, it also has strings picked for your racquet.
A string setup is about strings and tensions
A setup is your strings and their tensions. Pick the strings first, then tune the tensions. It can take two or three restrings to find the one you like.
Step 1: pick a string or two
Start from how you play and how your arm feels:
- New to the game, or play a few times a month: pick multifilament or synthetic gut. Both are soft and forgiving. They stay playable in the racquet for weeks or months.
- Elbow or shoulder trouble: go straight to multifilament, or natural gut if the budget stretches. Not polyester.
- Big swings, heavy topspin, or frequent breakage: polyester, or a hybrid with poly in the mains and a multi or gut in the crosses.
If you are torn between two, pick the softer one. You can go firmer at the next restring.
How to choose your tennis strings covers each string family in full. Or answer a few questions in String Finder and get strings to try.
Step 2: set a starting tension
Tension is how hard the stringing machine pulls each string before clamping it. You will see it in pounds in the US and in kilograms most other places. A common range of 50 to 60 lbs is about 23 to 27 kg.
Most racquets print a recommended range on the frame, often inside the throat. Stay inside it.
Lower tension feels softer. The strings give more on contact, so the ball comes off with more pop, and it is easier on the arm. Higher tension feels firmer. The ball comes off lower and shorter, so you swing harder for the same depth.
Not sure? Start in the middle of the range, then adjust for your strings:
- Multifilament, synthetic gut, or natural gut: around the middle, up to the middle plus 2 lbs.
- Polyester: a few pounds below the middle.
- Elbow or shoulder trouble: drop 2 lbs from there.
String Finder does this math for you. It suggests a starting tension with every string, using your racquet's range if it knows the racquet.
Step 3: change one thing at a time
Your first setup will probably be close but not quite right. That is normal. Over the next few restrings, nudge it toward what you like.
One change at a time. If you change the string and the tension together and it plays better, you will not know which one to thank.
2 lbs at a time. Most of us cannot feel a smaller change. A bigger one can jump right past the number you would have liked.
Write it down. The strings, the tensions, the date, and how the setup felt after you played. Three restrings later, all most of us remember is "same as last time."
When something feels off, ask whether it is a tension problem or a string problem:
- The ball flies long and the strings are fresh: go up 2 lbs.
- The ball flies long and the strings are old poly: the strings are probably dead, and no tension change will fix that. Poly goes dead long before it breaks. Time for a restring. We explain why poly goes dead.
- The ball lands short and you are working for depth: go down 2 lbs.
- Your arm complains: go down 2 lbs. If it still complains and you play polyester, switch to a softer string. That may help more than any number. If it hurts while you play, rest it and get it checked. No setup is worth an injury.
- You want more spin: that is the string's job more than the tension's. Poly mains give the most spin, in a full bed or a hybrid.
About hybrids: two strings, two tensions
A hybrid puts one string in the mains and another in the crosses. That is two strings to pick and two tensions to set.
With poly mains and multi or gut crosses, the usual advice is to string the stiff poly lower. Tennis Companion's hybrid guide sets the multi's tension first, then lowers the poly. String Finder puts the poly 2 lbs under the crosses.
We run some weird tests. In our hybrid log, poly mains and multi crosses at 54/54 lasted 37 hours. At the next restring we changed one thing: the mains went up 2 lbs, to 56/54, hoping they would last longer. That put the poly over the multi, the opposite of the usual advice. After 15 hours the dead mains felt stiff and the arm hurt, so we cut the strings out. The notes made the next move clear: go back down.
Always keep your own notes
We use StringLog to log each setup and how it played. After a few restrings, you will have your own record.