When I put myself in the shoes of a beginner tennis player my head spins. There’s a lot to break down, including the tennis strings in your racket. From how to play tennis to the gear involved, it’s impossible to keep things simple when you compare yourself to your favorite touring pro. While you may want to know what they play with or how they hit the ball, it’s overkill in the beginning and leads to frustration. Gear overwhelm will lead you straight into a financial mistake. If you’re learning to drive, do you need a Ferrari? Same idea.

Keep tennis strings, simple. In this post I speak tennis coach, Mark Sansait. Mark’s transparent & over the moon on his YouTube channel about tennis strings. Together we manage to make you aware of only what you need to know to keep your head above water in the beginner’s stage around tennis strings. Below you’ll find the basic lingo, some great string options, and of course, how to ultimately save money replacing tennis strings. It’s kind of a big deal to pop your 1st set! A real badge of honor for a tennis player. From there it gets annoying & expensive if you’re not careful.

Tennis strings are the material that fills the face of your tennis racket and absorbs the impact of your tennis stroke. Strings comes in different sizes, filaments and price points based on a players style and preference of play. Players can choose tennis string for comfort, power, spin or durability at different price points.

Pro tip:

Adult tennis camps by playing level & travel destination Summer 2023 click here.

One of the main reasons you’ll never hear me put a beginner adult into a beginner tennis racket is because the materials are absolutely sub-par. And I don’t care what brand name we’re talking about. You conveniently CANNOT demo beginner tennis rackets so jumping into a lightweight well balanced intermediate racket is a smart decision. Because even your demo tennis rackets (rackets you can test before you buy) will come with a better string than the beginner rackets on the shelf of a sporting goods store.

Once you’ve made the decision to play the game, invest in some decent gear. Your overall experience will feel better. A good tennis racket (or 2 if you love it), tennis string, over grips and a real tennis sneaker are your best friends from the start. From there, there’s no getting around all the gear options coming your way. Tennis strings have always been the most foreign tennis gear for me. I find a string I love and stick with it.

I’d rather get playing and leave the nerdy stuff to the nerds.🧑🏻‍🏫

Why do tennis strings break?

Tennis strings break because of normal wear & tear that your racket strings go through when they make contact with a ball. Think about tires on cars for example; it may not seem like every time you drive a mile that you lose materials on your tires, but over time car tires get flat. They lose material somewhere on the road. Very much like micro material type of wear. That's why they break eventually.

Hopefully, your strings break faster than a typical car tire. But it's the same concept. Same thing with shoes. Whether it’s your tennis shoes or gym shoes or even dress shoes. They eventually lose tread. Similar to how tennis strings lose material over time making contact with a ball being hit 1000's of times, over time.

Tennis players break strings by the way they make contact with the ball. Obviously the faster or more powerful you hit with spin affects tennis strings. If you hit with topspin, underspin or sidespin, your strings will eventually break due to the pressure on the strings.

How fast do tennis strings break?

Hmmm ... tough question. That's like asking how fast a human being can run. Or how fast a tennis player can serve. It depends.

I’ve personally broken strings as soon as an hour on-court with a soft string like a natural gut. And then there's string that I won't break until like 10 hrs. of hitting. So about 10 - 12 hitting sessions. Every tennis player is different on how fast they break their tennis stings. It also depends on what type of racket and what type of strings are being played with. So the short answer is ... it depends on a couple factors per player.

You will eventually break your strings when you hit with a lot of pace and spin and you play A LOT of tennis. If you do OR intend to play a lot of tennis and want to double down on saving money on re-strings - string your own.

Mark walks you through and breaks down the money you can save stringing your own stick (racket) below.

Meet Mark Sansait who’s here to save you $$ on your re-strings

Can you play with a broken string?

can you play with a broken tennis string? — Can you play with a broken string?

Pro tip:💡
Yes you can! It's highly recommended that you don't because of the immediate tension loss but the tip I give my junior players when I teach is ... if you find that your string breaks in the middle of a point whether it's a practice match or tournament match, rush to the net and try to finish the point as fast as possible. Because if you try and stay at the baseline & hit heavy topspin you don't know how the ball, racket or strings is going to react.

The tension can go from 55 lbs. to 20 lbs. in a matter of 2 strokes, depending on where the string breaks. So get to the net and finish the point off - FAST!

How to tell if your strings are dead?

There's 2 ways of doing this and they're both correct.

1.) If you FEEL that your strings aren't supplying enough power. Or you feel they're more dead than when they were freshly strung.

2.) You can use some sort of tension machine to see what tension your strings are currently at vs. what they were when they were 1st restrung.

Beginners do perfectly well having their rackets strung at the racket manufacturer’s recommended string tension.

Do mains or cross strings break first?

That really depends. On a hybrid set-up specifically if you have a polyester (stiffer) string on the mains and a softer string on the cross (synthetic gut or natural gut) or some sort of multi-filament. 9 out of 10 times the cross strings will break way ahead of the mains.

In any hybrid set-up the softer string vs. the poly string will break 10 out of 10 times before the polyester does.

What saves tennis strings from breaking?

There are string savers out there. But I really don't like the feeling of string savers. It's a pain as a stringer and doesn't feel natural as a tennis player or a tennis coach.

You can help your strings by avoiding a couple red flags.

🚩🚩Don't leave your racket (strings) in your car in extreme heat or extreme cold.

🚩🚩Keep your rackets at a well maintained room temperature. That's the best way to keep your strings from breaking and also to keep the tension maintenance for as long as possible.

String for beginner / intermediate players for comfort & durability?

That's a 2 part answer because comfort & durability are at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Comfort: I highly suggest Wilson Sensation. It's a very soft multi-filament for good, natural power. But it's not durable. In the US it's not that expensive. It's what I use and offer my clients who don't know what kind of softer string they want in their rackets. So Wilson Sensation is a damn good string and it's my standard-go to string.

Durability: Let's talk polyester string. Yonex Poly-Tour Pro is a fantastic poly string. It's very durable, especially for beginner - intermediate players. Also the Technifibre Razor Code is very similar to the Yonex Poly-Tour Pro. It's going to last a long time for this level of player.

A good string for spin?

Personally for a polyester string specific to spin potential, the Solinco Hyper G is extremally popular with juniors. Even with some college and lower end touring pros. It’s fantastic for spin. Very dead feeling. And let's just say, …very good for the modern game.

Best string for power?

Power meaning, you don't have to swing very hard to generate good depth right off the string bed. Any type of multi-filament is good. Here are some of THE BEST multi-filaments for power below. Some of these do get expensive. Especially outside the Wilson Sensations string, mentioned earlier.

By far the best power string is any type of natural gut. But not everyone can afford natural gut on their tennis strings.

Tennis Strings have Different Gauges? Yes, and here’s how it breaks down

16 gauge string: Consider 16 gauge the standard. And a thinner string is 16L.

17 gauge string: This is thinner still than the 16L string.

The thickest I’ve seen is 15 gauge. The thinnest string I’ve seen is 19 gauge.

Pro tip:💡

The thinner the gauges, the more spin potential, more feel, more bite. So all the positives most players are talking about. BUT, you get significantly less durability.

How much does a racket re-string cost {USA} using natural gut?

That’ll depend where you’re at stateside. If you’re restringing natural gut in Southern Alabama, it’s going to be a lot cheaper than a re-string in San Francisco, LA or NYC.

In terms of just the packet of strings only, {so forget the service cost = the person re-stringing your racket using a stringing machine). A packet of natural gut at retail online - on sale is around $37. And the most expensive can go to $55 a packet.

What if your racket strings fray in the center?

First of all, if your strings are fraying in the center that’s a good sign. It means most of your shots are in the center of the sweet spot. And we all want that. Mark suggests playing with the string until it pops! Unless you only have 1 racket.

Or if most of your strings are fraying and you have 2 rackets but you have a tournament or event coming up that you really want to play, get the frayed racket restrung now. Because you’re going to be without a racket very soon.

When you see your strings fraying, typically in the center, you’re seeing the last 25% of the strings lifetime before it pops.

Now for beginner & early intermediate players keep in mind that adding spin will never come from a flat grip, like an eastern forehand grip. But this is the grip you should learn the game in at 1st. If your intention is to later hit a forehand with topspin you’ll shift over to a semi-western grip to do that. Other tennis shots require using a continental grip for spin shots - not a specific string for spin.

I say this because if you find yourself groveling over a tennis string so you can hit heavy topspin or you’re dying to master a drop shot I say this … spend more time learning your tennis grips than obsessing around a string to do this for you!

☞ In the meantime, what style of player do you want to be? A more classic or modern player? Maybe a hybrid of both? A power player or someone who wants a lot of variety & an all around fun game? Let me know in the comment section.

With love from Mallorca~

Tennis Strings: Beginners, have you popped yours yet? A beginner's guide to tennis strings