How To Choose Your First Tennis Strings

Congratulations on purchasing your first tennis racket!

Usually your racket would already come with stock strings, if not, the retail shop staff might have recommended strings and strung them for you! 

After playing/learning for some time, about a year or so, your racquet strings may break or still stay intact. If it breaks, you will need a new set of strings. How would you know what material and tension then? 

If the strings don’t break, should you change the strings? How often should you change strings? Also, at a later stage, instead of purchasing a second racquet,  some players may prefer to explore using different strings, which is also a cheaper option.  

Let’s address the 3 components of tennis strings: Material, Tension, and Gauge 

Recommended Materials for Beginners

• Synthetic gut (nylon solid core with one or more wraps)

Above: Look out for the material on the pack or reel of strings. This example shows ‘synthetic’.

• Multi-filament (>1000 nylon microfibers)

• Hybrid (combination of any 2 different string materials on mains and crosses)

Above: In this pack of strings, material on main is aramid and cross is synthetic, making it a hybrid of materials, with different gauges too.

Weighing the pros and cons, I recommend beginners to start with synthetic gut as it provides overall balance of good playability (in terms of power, control, spin and comfort), durable and is cost-friendly.

If you have experienced tennis elbow (pain on the outer side of your elbow) and have recovered, I recommend you to try a hybrid of multi-filament on the mains and synthetic gut on the crosses. I would not recommend full multi-filament strings for a hard-hitter as the strings will break quickly. 

Multi-filament strings also ‘mimics’ the costly natural gut that is made of the serous membrane of cow intestines. They are a bit more costly than synthetic gut and fray easily, but are more comfortable for your arm. The intention of hybrid strings is to enjoy the best of both worlds/strings. 

Tension of String

Strings can be strung looser or tighter - looser string bed (lower tension) provides more power and less control; while a tighter string bed (higher tension) provides less power and more control. Looser-strung strings can stretch more and, thus, impart more power to the ball. But this power comes at the cost of control.

Assuming your racquet is on the lighter side (as what we recommend in our recent video on ‘How to Select your First Racquet), we would recommend string tension between 50 to 54 pounds for ladies and between 52 to 56 pounds for men. You can try different tensions on mains and crosses.

Do note that some strings hold tension better than others, but all strings lose tension over time. A general guide on when you should change strings is if you play once weekly, then you should change the strings once a year; if you play 3 times a week, then you should change the strings 3 times a year. 

Gauges of Strings

The common gauges of strings are as below:

16G (1.32 mm +/-)

17G (1.25 mm +/-)

18G (1.10 mm +/-)

The thickness of the string can have an effect on spin potential, durability and feel. The thinner the string, the more bite you can get on the ball to generate more topspin. Thinner strings also tend to break quicker and have more feel than thicker strings. Feel comes into play especially when you are moving forward and volleying. I recommend that you start with 16G as they are more durable.

Above: In this reel of strings, gauge is 18G / 1.20mm.

Above: In this reel of strings, gauge is 17G / 1.24mm.

You are still learning the sport and discovering your playing style. Changing strings is a process of experimentation and can aid your game. As you progress in tennis, it can be helpful to experiment with different strings.

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