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Racquet care is mostly common sense:

• String within the recommended range.

Stringing is a little more complicated. It won’t hurt your racquet to restring less often, but your strings might lose their responsiveness.

What’s the best string?

Some players who can tolerate a stiff string bed but want to moderate the stiffness somewhat use Kevlar main strings with synthetic gut cross strings. The performance of Kevlar strings seems fairly consistent across different brands, but other types of string are less predictable. Generally, tighter strings offer more control, looser strings more comfort. String tension has a profound effect on the way a racquet performs and feels. I’ve seen lots of players hate a racquet strung at one tension, then love an identical frame strung differently.

This page contains tips for stringing different racquet types.

You don’t need a printed stringing pattern for every racquet to be able to string it. If you consult my stringing guide you can save the money for an expensive stringing manual. Oversize Racquets

you need more string (38-40′ = 12m).

• you need higher tension.

Widebodies are racquets with an extremely wide frame profile, thus featuring a maximum of comfort through reduction of frame vibrations. Most Widebodies are also Oversize racquets.

Suggestion: 29/28 kg (= 64/62 lbs).

there’s an enormous stress on the string implied by the frame so you should only use quite durable strings (diameter no less than 1.30mm)

Racquets with staggered grommets

Stringing those racquets stays the same like stringing any other racquet, but you have to take care of some things:

• when weaving the cross strings they have to force the main strings into one level.

General notes on racquets

Every racquet has grommets made of synthetics to guard the strings. Temporarily you can also use a string tubing to protect the string.
The racquet frame is exposed to an enormous stress during the stringing process.

Modern tennis rackets vary in length, weight, and head size. Weights of a racket also vary between 8 ounces unstrung and 12.5 ounces unstrung. Head size also plays a role in a racket’s qualities. A smaller head size offers more precise control. Head sizes of recent rackets vary between 85 sq. inches and 137 sq. inches.

Throughout most of tennis’ history, rackets heads were around 65 square inches and rackets were made of laminated wood. Prince popularized the oversize racket, which had a head size of approximately 110 square-inches and opened the door for the introduction of rackets having other non-standard head sizes such as midsize 90 square-inches and mid-plus size 95 square-inches. Composite rackets are the contemporary standard.

Midsize or mid-plus rackets are the general standard for professional players.

Stringing (material, pattern, tension) is an important factor in the performance of a tennis racket. String pattern (the vertical/horizontal grid) is a function of the racket head size and design. Modern rackets are marked with a recommended string tension range. Double strung tennis rackets were introduced in 1977 and then banned because they permitted excessive spin.

A modern version of a legal double strung racket has been introduced.

Choosing the right racket will often boost a player’s game.

 Grip Size

Choosing the right size of grip is essential.

 Head Size

Bigger head size racket offer more power and spin, however; they lack maneuverability and stability. Smaller head size racket offer more control and less power.

 Racket Length

The standard length of a tennis racket is 27 inches. The flex or stiffness of a tennis racket is the racket’s resistance to bending or deforming upon impact with the ball. Stiff rackets also offer solid feel while less stiff rackets have a softer feel.

String Pattern

String pattern is measured by how many strings go up and down (called mains) and how many strings go side to side (crosses) when your racket is fully strung. One drawback of open string pattern is it reduces the string’s durability.

 Weight

Technology has played a large role in racket weights. Until the 1990s, tennis rackets weighed an average of 12-13 ounces. Nowadays, most manufacturers offer sub 10 ounces rackets. More accomplished players tend to prefer heavier rackets. Rackets with the same weight could have different balance. A racket with more weight distributed on the head rather than the handle is called a head heavy racket, and the opposite is called a head light racket. Head heavy rackets will give players more power but lacks in maneuverability because of its weight distribution. Most accomplished players tend to choose head light rackets.

Rackets for Tennis (or Lawn Tennis as it was originally called when first introduced in the 1870’s) were developed from those used for Real or Royal Tennis played for centuries previously. The later development of composite frames became possible only because of the development of carbon fibre and associated manufacturing techniques in the 1960’s.

Wooden Frames

Initially these were made from one or more sticks of ash bent to the required shape and glued with ‘animal glues’. The wooden tennis racket was manufactured in quantity until the early 1980’s when metal and later composites took over.

Metal Frames

The problem of stringing metal rackets was not satisfactorily solved until a method was devised and patented by Lacoste in 1953 (1) in which the racket strings were made to pass around metal wires looped to the frame. The commercial success of this racket in the early 1970’s encouraged competitors to develop other types – some based on hollow aluminium-alloy extrusions (2) and very stiff frames using carbon-steel (3). The use of metal tubing determined that the racket frames invariably had twin shafts unlike the single shafted wooden frame. Plastic ‘grommets’ were developed to insulate the strings from sharp hole edges and such developments together produced successful rackets which began to erode the market for wooden rackets. In the mid 70’s, the increased stiffness and strength offered by metals led one manufacturer, Prince, to develop and patent a racket with a larger than normal or ‘oversize’ head (4) and this was subsequently followed by other manufacturers making rackets with a variety of head sizes. At that time, no limit on head size was specified by the International Tennis Federation, but a limit was subsequently imposed in 1979. While this allowed the stringing area to be increased by up to around 100% compared with the standard wooden racket of the time, rackets of head size limited to some 30 to 50% larger have subsequently been favoured.

Composite Frames

The recognised success of metal rackets in the early 1970’s led to experimentation with other non-traditional materials, particularly glass fibre and the newly developed carbon fibre (usually referred to as ‘graphite’ in the sports industry). Although very expensive, carbon fibre was preferred as it had greater specific stiffness and strength, in fact several times that of steel, and so offered significant prospects for further racket frame development.

Several sheets of the impregnated fabric and/or warp sheet (now termed a ‘composite material’) are then layered together with their tow alignments angled to provide subsequent multi-directional strength properties.

The process of making a racket frame from such laminated sheet material involves forming it first into tubular form by rolling it around a plastic tube capable of subsequently being pressurised with air. Local areas are reinforced with extra material and the whole assembly is fitted into a mould of the appropriate shape and cross-section to form the main keyhole-shaped structure of the frame. An extra ‘bridge’ component is added of similar material to complete the loop of the head and the assembly is moulded under heat and applied internal air-pressure to cure and so harden the resin. This procedure (5) has been developed by many manufacturers to become recognised as the basic method for making composite racket frames. Metal rackets using uniform drawn or extruded metal tubing are at a disadvantage in this respect. The mould is closed and the resin then injected prior to internal pressurisation and heating. Another is where the hollow tube is formed from two separate mouldings of ‘C’ cross-section are joined together by adhesive bonding to form the ‘O’ section of the tube.