I've had the opportunity to try both the poly tour strike and drive string from Yonex for a few good hits so I think I can chime in on this action. For background I'm a hard hitting 4.5 player with a 2HBH who puts an emphasis on controlled aggression on my ground-strokes building up to the put-away shot. So the PTD (as far as I've heard) was supposed to be a sort of RPM blast copy from yonex, what with the 8 sides and feel and all.
Sad to say I don't think these two strings (RPM and PTD) are similar at all. Drive feels more like a round string than a shaped string to me, and this is shown in its pretty unremarkable spin potential. I'd say it's maybe slightly above average at spin but good at comfort. Never gave me any really painful vibrations. Something else i noticed is that when i would crank up the racket head speed and really try to whomp the ball in a relatively flat motion, the strings would cup the ball and send it flying long consistently. So i couldn't use it for more than a few hits because simply put i didn't have the control i wanted, and this was strung at 53 pounds in a 2017 pure strike. Serving felt off likely from that strange amount of power and volleys were similar. I most likely will not be using it in the future.
As far as the Strike, this string is actually true to its shape and plays like a well made round poly. The rumors said it was supposed to be like Alu Power and it may get close in my opinion. Good tension maintenance with hard hitting, good soft feel on impact, great spin, only knock i have on it at the moment is that in the 17 gauge size (1.2 mm thickness) it's a little bit too much power for me personally as I'm used to the bite of Hyper G but nothing I or anyone else could get used to. If i can somehow reign in that power with a thicker gauge and maybe a higher tension, it could be a real winner. Shots feel more consistent with the strike and serving as well as volleys feel more controlled overall than with the drive. I could feel comfortable going into a tournament with this.
For someone who like strings such as Kirshbaum pro line 2, any round kirshbaum string actually, head hawk, Yonex PTP, etc. that give you good spin and that reliable response that only a round poly can give, this one is at least worth a try. I know the pricetag will scare off many customers but I thought of it like this: if this string plays similar to alu power yet is slightly cheaper and has better tension maintenance, what's not to like??
What do you like about this combo?
