If you’ve had a chance to browse through the menu of string options available at Portland Racquet Works you’ve no doubt been curious about the many custom string blends offered. To help you understand a bit more about these mysterious string blends, we offer this post to help explain our philosophy of Blendology.
Portland Racquet Works is always testing new blends to find the perfect match to our customers needs
As both playing style and tennis equipment evolve, there has been a need to discover new ways of matching the perfect equipment to a players style and the desired results of the player. With the introduction and growing popularity of monofilament Polyester strings, an entirely new player was introduced to the tennis world. Many players of the current generation quickly adopted this new string that would allow them to control the more powerful racquets in their hands, while at the same time generating ferocious spin and jaw dropping power.
Unfortunately, not all of the desired results were achieved by this shift to Poly strings. So this is where things started to get interesting. First off, many of the Polyester string suppliers started developing different versions of their popular strings. Luxilon was grabbing a huge share of the string market with the introduction of their Original Big Banger string. But for some, the string didn’t give them the bite or comfort they wanted. So, the string engineers went to work on strings like Alu Power, Alu Power Rough, 4G, etc, etc. Other string suppliers also got into the act by introducing their own versions of Poly. But what really changed things, was when players started to mix multifilament strings with the Polyester strings. Roger Federer was one of the pioneers in this growing trend. Having switched to a slightly larger racquet head, he wanted to find a string that would allow him to harness the power, but also take advantage of the new spin possibilities of his new racquet. Having been a natural gut player during the early parts of his career, he wasn’t comfortable going to an all Poly string bed. With some extensive testing, he finally settled on a mix of Wilson Natural Gut for the main strings and Luxilon Alu Power Rough for the cross. This was that perfect blend that would give him what he needed to compete at the highest level. In the years since Roger started playing with this new Hybrid Blend, many of the worlds top players have made the switch to similar set ups.
So what does this Blending of strings mean for the average recreational player? This question has several answers. The blending of strings can provide performance enhancements like added spin and control of a powerful racquet. It can also provide more comfort, as compared to a full poly string bed. It can even provide an opportunity to save a few bucks. But like an experienced bartender in the art of Mixology, it takes an experienced racquet stringer to advice a player in the art of Blendology. And sometimes you can expect the process of finding the perfect blend to take a few trials before settling on the best one.
If you feel you are missing something in your game, perhaps it’s time to look at your strings and talk to a good blendologist to see if they can find what you are missing.
With a switch to a larger racquet head, Roger Federer went with a Natural Gut/Poly hybrid string bed.