Question on Federer's string combo.

[Sid_Vicious]

We hear people talk about modern strings all the time and how they help modern players generate massive amounts of spin. I was wondering whether one can say that Federer benefits from modern strings. Federer uses luxilon in the crosses and natural gut for mains. The mains are the strings that impart the vast majority of topspin on the ball. Djokovic does exactly the same thing.Are Federer and Djokovic benefitting from "modern strings" by using them in crosses?

[Pwned]

Well Federer and Djokovic both put about 2800rpms on the ball according to Fowler. Agassi was around 1800. It's hard to draw a straight comparison though. But natural gut is also very capable of generating heaps of spin. See the table here:
http://twu.tennis-warehouse.com/lear...ementPart2.php

If you take a look at this table you can see that the 90s players hit with a tremendous amount of spin as well:
http://www.advancedtennis.com/results/groundmen.htm
Bruguera averaging as much as Nadal on the forehand at 3300 and he used VS gut.


Gut is very powerful. The idea seems to be having a half a bed of polyester to tame the power of gut and add more control. Generating spin with natural gut is not the problem.

[Devilito]

In a hybrid, having copoly for mains OR crosses will reduce the friction of the other string allowing it to spring back and help with spin. So you don't need a full bed of poly to get the advantages of poly.

[courtking]

I thought the advantage of poly b/c of less friction.. 2 poly main and cross produce vibration after the ball hit and it like a sling shot put spin on the ball.. yes, there is a scientific study on this.. so the point of hybrid will make it less spin compare poly/poly.. There was a full scientific published on this matter.. very very detail.. The slow down the string bed to 10,000 of seconds and they see the effects clearly..

[TennisCJC]

I don't want to get into the science because it hurts my head but my rule of thumb is poly=less power, more spin, more directional control and gut=more power, more feel, good spin, and good directional control. Mains dominate characteristics of stringbed and crosses influence characteristics of stringbed.

I use poly/gut to tone down the power and increase spin. I use gut/poly to get more power and feel but still benefit with a little more spin from the poly cross.

I don't have any studies but all poly will probably produce more spin than gut/poly or poly/gut.

Gut/poly volleys much better than poly/poly or poly/gut. Softer mains give more feel and spring from the stringbed.

[Smasher08]

Originally Posted by Devilito

In a hybrid, having copoly for mains OR crosses will reduce the friction of the other string allowing it to spring back and help with spin. So you don't need a full bed of poly to get the advantages of poly.

Well said, I think you've put it best. And gut mains with poly crosses is the spinniest combo found in tests by TWU.

[kiteboard]

Murray also combines alu/vs team gut. Three of four top pros, hmmm? Soderling, Berdych, tsonga, Delpo, gulbis, all use alu. (Tsonga switched back from rpm.) Alu is teflon infused aluminum fluorocarbon resin. It slides grabs and snaps back as if it never moved at all. Does the same when combined with gut. The amount of snap back changes the angle of the shot off the bed.

[dr325i]

Originally Posted by kiteboard

Murray also combines alu/vs team gut. Three of four top pros, hmmm? Soderling, Berdych, tsonga, Delpo, gulbis, all use alu. (Tsonga switched back from rpm.) Alu is teflon infused aluminum fluorocarbon resin. It slides grabs and snaps back as if it never moved at all. Does the same when combined with gut. The amount of snap back changes the angle of the shot off the bed.

Maybe you should read the OP again...
How does it "grab" and so on if in crosses? Sure it does, but it sounds like it would be doing more of that if in the mains...

[corners]

Originally Posted by Smasher08

Well said, I think you've put it best. And gut mains with poly crosses is the spinniest combo found in tests by TWU.

TWU hasn't published any test results showing the spin potential of gut mains/poly crosses. They published results of inter-string static and sliding friction with that combo and gut/poly is very slippery. This suggests it should be very spin friendly, and many players report that it is (I think so too), but there is, as yet, no objective evidence that it is.