Why did top players switch from Kevlar to polyester?

HunterST

HunterST

Hall of Fame
Before poly, many players, including Agassi, used Kevlar hybrids. Now, almost everyone uses polyester or a poly hybrid.

I've played with many polyesters and like a lot of them. However, I really don't see them as superior to Kevlar. Kevlar feels pretty similar to low powered, stiff polys like tour bite.

Is there something I'm missing? I'm a weak 4.5 player, so, while I'm nowhere close to 5.0+ players, It's not like I'm a player with undeveloped strokes who couldn't take advantage of the strings.

I feel like the go-to answer is "more spin." Is there any real evidence that poly produces greater spin than Kevlar, though?
 
Players used Kevlar hybrids for durability when they kept breaking NG and SG back in the days before poly. I am referring to breaking a string job in 1-2 days. Hybrids like Prince's old Pro Blend were a life saver, though probably not good for the arm if you have bad technique. Then polyester strings like BBO came along and it offered more durability and 'touch' then Kevlar. And it would last 3-4 days, which was all good from the player standpoint. As far as spin, Pro Blend Kevlar is a high friction string, especially paired with PSGD. It was not good for producing spin whereas polyester, with its smooth surface, was good for spin. Trying to hit with a lot of spin left the mains out of position a lot. You could do it with Pro Blend, but it took a lot more effort than using polyester.

You have probably seen the threads about Kevlar and ZX with tension differential. That combo does produce spin without the effort required from Pro Blend. 2 factors are a work; thinner Kevlar with a better coating; ZX's slippery-ness and durability. 3 cent answer.
 
I guess you can see vintage Agassi vids (mid 90's) and more "contemporary" Agassi vids and see/hear the difference of his ball. I've never used kevlar, but it seems, just by watching the difference ,kevlar was waaaaaay stiffer, deader. He had a controlled ball-strike, it seems that when he wanted to give the ball more topspin than usual, it was all about the wrist snap and acceleration. When he switched to polys (he used Luxilon, right?) his ball took off. Im under the impression he even stated that modern polys changed the game, that it felt like "cheating", since they could provide tons of power without loosing too much control of the ball.

At least to me, the difference when it came to Agassi's ball strinking is obvious (say 90's Agassi vs 2000's Agassi).
 
The poly slides and slips back the kevlar does not. The slip back gives extra rotation and keeps strings from moving. The kevlar does not do that, thus the poly gives more spin
 
travlerajm said:
Obviously you have never tried kevlar mains with poly crosses.
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travlerajm said:
Obviously you have never tried kevlar mains with poly crosses.
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True I never have comboed those types of strings, I have used both as mains, along with a syn cross. I have found that my mains move a lot not so much my crosses. I am lefty hit 3 serves slice top slice and Twist serves on the groundies top slice and sidespin. Been playing 63 years and used a multitude of different strings
 
The performance aspects of co-poly strings is more conducive to the performance needs, wants, and desires of current players. Mostly the control from the spin aspect of co-poly strings.
 
scotus said:
What top players, obviously with the exception of Agassi, used Kevlar?
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The pro's change their string jobs ever half hour so they don't need Kevlar anymore. It's hard to beat being able to use a fresh poly string job every half hour.
 
beltsman said:
Nope. I'm just speaking from hearsay.
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There is a lot of hearsay on this site. I've noticed that a lot of people that talk about how you have to use low tension with poly but have never actually tried it at high tension, but magically they know more about it than guys that have experimented a lot with many different tensions.
 
tlm said:
There is a lot of hearsay on this site. I've noticed that a lot of people that talk about how you have to use low tension with poly but have never actually tried it at high tension, but magically they know more about it than guys that have experimented a lot with many different tensions.
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This is actually in-person hearsay, but yeah.
 
Kevlar is very spin friendly, especially with a slick poly cross. Kevlar has a more predictable response at lower swingspeeds and will give you just as much or more spin than poly up to a certain swingspeed, but then good poly has an extra gear. You also get a little more pop with poly.

J
 
J011yroger said:
Kevlar is very spin friendly, especially with a slick poly cross. Kevlar has a more predictable response at lower swingspeeds and will give you just as much or more spin than poly up to a certain swingspeed, but then good poly has an extra gear. You also get a little more pop with poly.

J
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As usual Jolly is spot on.
 
Why do top players never used Kevlar?

I am 100% certain that Federer, Nadal, Djokovic never used Kevlar. Why??
 
ricardo said:
Why do top players never used Kevlar?

I am 100% certain that Federer, Nadal, Djokovic never used Kevlar. Why??
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Not sure how you can know this but whatever. If they haven't I would guess that poly or poly and nat. gut had taken over amongst the pro players so much that Kevlar was pretty much dead and gone. When you can use fresh poly all the time there is no need for Kevlar.
 
scotus said:
Never knew them as Kevlar users. Your source?
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My source? Seriously? If I manage to dig out a 20 yr old copy of the USRSA Stringer's Assistant with a quote on the front page of Michael Chang saying "I like Pro Blend, it's nice and dead" what do I get? 2 brownie points?
 
10shoe said:
My source? Seriously? If I manage to dig out a 20 yr old copy of the USRSA Stringer's Assistant with a quote on the front page of Michael Chang saying "I like Pro Blend, it's nice and dead" what do I get? 2 brownie points?
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To be fair, a picture with a quote doesn't count for all that much when we have players now talking about how much they like the feel of their new, improved racquet when in reality they're using something from 10 years ago. This isn't to say that Chang didn't use problend, or whatnot, but that an advertisement of him claiming to use kevlar isn't necessarily true.
 
Doubles said:
To be fair, a picture with a quote doesn't count for all that much when we have players now talking about how much they like the feel of their new, improved racquet when in reality they're using something from 10 years ago. This isn't to say that Chang didn't use problend, or whatnot, but that an advertisement of him claiming to use kevlar isn't necessarily true.
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Who said it was an advertisement? It was the lead article on the front page.
 
10shoe said:
My source? Seriously? If I manage to dig out a 20 yr old copy of the USRSA Stringer's Assistant with a quote on the front page of Michael Chang saying "I like Pro Blend, it's nice and dead" what do I get? 2 brownie points?
Click to expand...

No need. I tracked down some old posts here that show that Chang used Pro Blend to win Roland Garros. When I previously searched for Chang and Kevlar I couldn't find anything, but Problend turned up quite a few sources. Thanks.

Did Pierce also use Problend?
 
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