In the 1990s, it was common to see pro players and high level amateur players requesting very high string tensions, with most stringing well above 60lbs or even 70lbs, and some crossing the 75 and 80lbs line.
But today, many professional players request the opposite. It’s common to see pro players with tensions well below 50lbs, with some players like John Isner and Jack Sock stringing at an incredibly low 35lbs. So what’s changed?
Put simply, the string material has evolved. In the 1990s, most pro players used Natural Gut or multifilament strings in their rackets, which had great elastic properties, but poor levels of control. While this was less of an issue for competitive tennis in most of the 20th century, mainstream advancements in racket technology during the 1980s made the game more powerful, and the old- fashioned gut strings simply couldn’t keep up.
By the 1990s, many advanced players were stringing at increasingly high tensions, attempting to squeeze as much control out of the old-fashioned gut as possible. Fourteen-time grand slam champion Pete Sampras would request his compact 85 square inch rackets be strung at an extremely tight 75lbs, but the most notorious setup was that of tennis legend Monica Seles, who requested her rackets be strung at an unthinkable 92lbs!
Following the universal adoption of the “modern” carbon tennis racket in the 1980s, polyester tennis strings began to appear on the tennis market in the early 1990s, but it would be several years before these strings would become commonplace in the elite levels of the game, utilised by a new generation of players competing with a strikingly different baseline style of tennis.
By comparison, the serve-and volley tennis of old was a style primarily played from inside the court at a closer range, where control was prioritized over generating power, hence why higher tensions were more useful.
When playing from further back in the court, players must generate more of their own power. The advent of polyester tennis strings allows for a good degree of control at lower, more powerful tensions, so players naturally took advantage.
Today, it is common to see the pros request tensions in the 40-50lb range, but that doesn’t mean the pro tour isn’t without extreme tension choices today. France’s Adrian Mannarino requests his rackets be strung at a ridiculous 22lbs! I string badminton rackets tighter than that!
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