Whose performance would suffer the most if they had to use a full gut stringjob?
- Thread starter galain
- Start date
jmacdaununder2
Legend
Jack Sock's forehand? Actually, I'd like to see Rafa with full NG. It would be interesting to see what he could still do. Borg, Vilas et al. did okay, and Rafa could probably get decent RPMs with a frying pan. (No real need to repost video of guy hitting with actual frying pan, but if someone wants to...).
WestboroChe
Hall of Fame
I think a lot of these players would adjust and be fine in a few hours. The real issue is it might be hard to keep all those racquets strung!
Stretchy Man
Professional
Sureshs plays with full gut and still plays high level tennis. 
racketspec
Rookie
Rafa. Anything less than 1.35mm he’ll snap for fun. He would not be able to have the same rpm’s if using NG.
WestboroChe
Hall of Fame
I disagree. I think any top pro especially an ATG would play just fine with gut. They would definitely break strings a lot but they would have all the control and feel they need.
The question would be different if they were asked to play with gut and the opponent used poly.
J011yroger
Talk Tennis Guru
Didn't Novak win the YEC with a multi?
J
J
galain
Hall of Fame
I think they'd adjust to some extent for sure, but watching some older matches from the pre-poly era, I was struck but how many mistakes were being made compared to today. Perhaps it's the style of play as well, but you hear pretty much everyone talking about significantly string technology has changed the sport.
WestboroChe
Hall of Fame
Definitely. I think the biggest difference is defending. These guys can whip passing shots off their shoe tops at full speed from behind the baseline routinely now. You can’t do that with gut.
However guys like Courier and Brugera were already hitting those heavy whippy topspin shots all the time playing with gut. My understanding was that poly originally came on as a way to give players a more durable string. It was then discovered the snap back allowed players to hit with even more spin.
So my guess would be you’d see a lot more broken strings and maybe some less spectacular defending.
IowaGuy
Hall of Fame
WestboroChe
Hall of Fame
5 according to Wikipedia. Damn. That’s impressive.Rafter with his full gut made a whopping 3 UFE in the 1998 U.S. Open final
IowaGuy
Hall of Fame
Agreed!
Rafter is quoted as saying he doesn't volley as well with poly.
I don't either
galain
Hall of Fame
Rafter with his full gut made a whopping 3 UFE in the 1998 U.S. Open final
That's incredible! Of course, it was baseline tennis I was watching when I wondered about the poly strings - but still, 3 errors over the course of a match no matter how you play is a phenomenal performance. I don't think poly would be all that much help to a net player compared to a baseliner either.
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