Polys: Extending Playability w/ Hybrid?

[Scribbles]

Hey guys,

I'm getting around 2-3 weeks (10-12 hours of play per week) out of a full bed of 1.30/1.25mm polys. The beginning of the 3rd week is when I can feel the string bed "dying" (reduced pop and ball pocketing) and by the end of the 3rd week, I feel like I'm playing with a plank of wood. I have my polys strung up at 55 lbs in my IG Prestige Pro.

So a couple questions:

1) If I use polys in my mains and something softer like a multi or syn gut/nylon in the crosses, will it increase the life of my string bed? By a week?

2) Correct me if I'm wrong, but polys die because the friction between the mains and crosses wear out the smooth coating of the poly, right? The amount of coating on smaller and larger gauges is the same, so does that mean string gauge doesn't affect the length of playability?

Thanks for any help you guys can provide.

 

[fgs]

basically yes for the simple reason that the wear, in this case the notching of the mains, will be reduced due to lower friction with the softer multi crosses. but then it very much depends on your playstyle, because if you hit quite heavy topspin, then it could happen that your multi crosses will break even sooner - i understand you get, from the durability point of view, some 3 weeks with summed up 30 hours on your poly stringbed. i do not know if a multi in the crosses would last for 40 hours (4 weeks as per your target) if you don't really hit it rather flat.

 

[TennisCJC]

If you're getting 25-30 hours from all poly, then that's pretty good and I doubt it will play well longer by going to a hybrid. You may just break the soft string sooner than 25 hours if you go to a hybrid. 20 hours of quality play from any string is pretty good much less from all poly.

 

[Scribbles]

Thanks for the response guys. I hadn't thought the string breakage thing. I do hit pretty spin heavy groundstrokes. With a hybrid, would nylon/Syn gut or multi work better? Can you guys recommend me some durable ones?

 

[phanker]

That's impressive how many hrs you're getting from poly.
To extend its life further, you can figure out if the mains or crosses are dying on you. Restring the crosses only to see how it plays. If it's still good, then your mains are ok still.
I restring my crosses with an opposite weave than before so crosses are not locked. The mains notching from the original stringing job is now exposed on the stringbed and it's actually giving me more bite on the ball too. I save a little $ and stringing time doing this so far.
I'm using 16g/18g poly hybrids.

 

[SpinToWin]

Thanks for the response guys. I hadn't thought the string breakage thing. I do hit pretty spin heavy groundstrokes. With a hybrid, would nylon/Syn gut or multi work better? Can you guys recommend me some durable ones?

Definitely nylon/syn gut. Multi is gone in no time flat.

 

[meltedsteam]

You can extend playability by crossing with Monogut ZX Pro.

 

[Scribbles]

Thanks guys. It's been forever since I used syn gut/nylon. Can you guys recommend me a few to try?

 

[Rjtennis]

If your looking for durability try Babolat NVY.

 

[Scribbles]

If your looking for durability try Babolat NVY.

I checked on Tennis Warehouse but it seems like Babolat NVY isn't available anymore? Maybe its discontinued. Can you guys recommend me other nylon/syn guts to use in my crosses, please? I'm looking for something pretty durable and to add a bit of pop without adding too much power.

Thanks

 

[TheWolverine]

I've always liked Gosen OG Sheep Micro in my hybrid crosses. Cheap, good feel, decent slipperiness to allow the poly mains to move.