REVIEW: Our Top 5 Tennis Strings 2023

Tennis strings make a huge difference to the way your racket plays so we've reviewed the top 5 (available in 2023).
Everything you need to know if you want to generate more spin, more power or gain more control.
00:00 - Intro
00:34 - The Top 5
04:52 - Honourable Mentions
07:08 - Natural Gut
08:05 - The Winner
09:50 - Outtake
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[@johnnyguitar6697]

I like 4G Soft a lot. It's my go to string for open string patterns, as it helps tame the launch angle. Not overly stiff, great tension maintenance, and very good spin for a round string. Only downside is the price.

[@press_button_for_assistance]

Thanks for the video guys! I appreciate the personal insight into strings as people who work with products often know the intrinsical differences between each product. I find the tennis hardware world very opaque and most people don’t highlight the downsides to rackets or strings and just repeat the marketing. Repeating the marketing doesn’t tell me anything.

[@ivanjo6478]

What’s your recommended string tension when using full bed multifilament string? I put Yonex Rexis Speed on 55 lbs full bed and it’s freaking stiff and hard to hit with spin. It’s great for flat hitter but I’m so struggling to produce spin. I still have another pack of the rexis speed for my ezone 100 and I’m thinking to hybrid it with something else, maybe a nice poly. What’s your recommendation for the hybrid pair and tension?

[@TheodorosKolokotronis799]

After testing confidential and lynx tour i came back to my trusty 4G on my blade 98s 18x16 v5 2015. Best blade ever easily. 4G soft felt a little bit more mushy compared to 4G. They play very similar. Have you tried a hybrid of 4G / Sensation ? Have you tried lowering your 4G tension at around 20kg ? 4G has an almost 1 month durability of around 20 hours of play…..4G soft felt different after 10 hours ? What’s your take on softs durability ?

[@juanantoniocanohidalgo5070]

Nice video I prefer Head Hawk 130 white, top control, tension mantenaince and the most soft poly I have tried

[@intruder2404]

Hi guys, great selection. What about RPM Team string? There are not so many reviews on it, I would compare it with PTP. We have a 15y female junior player, we tried many strings, last try was Hyper-G soft, but she always come back to the RPM Team. She has some great results on ITF junior tour with it. Have you ever tried RPM Team, do you have some opinion on it? Thnx!

[@jeromejerome7948]

Just got ezone strung with confidential in the mains a poly tour pro in the crosses. First play test tonight

[@craigviner4530]

Hey guys - to me its the perfect string for a coach!! As a 4G soft user in my Blade 98 v8 16x19 I love it - I also coach and find it perfect for long days of court - as you guys know throughout a day you play with a range of abilities and this string cuts it at all levels. For example - I find using a stiff (stiffer) string is great whilst thrashing the ball around the back of the court for 2 hours - whilst playing indoors with new balls! But realistically thats not always the case. And a soft string, although great comfort can lack the control and tension maintance a coach needs when playing at a higher level but also to keep them from having to restring a racquet every month. So to me 4G soft is great - I find it does fall off a cliff though. I used Element too but was breaking too many strings but another softish string to try. Some players even hybrid the 4G with the Element to get best of both worlds.

[@movdqa]

I had used ALU Power since 2005 and switched to Hyper-G last fall. I tried lower tensions and have come to the conclusion that higher tensions are better. There is a moderate tension loss after a few hours and then it holds tension for a long time. I hit with one for 20 hours and it was fine. Some say that it lasts 15, 20, 30 hours. I actually don't really know but the tension loss after 20 hours makes it unplayable outside of a practice session or feeding balls to someone. I'd say that it loses spin potential after 10 hours as it loses the shaped aspect of the string. The thing is that stiff polys like ALU Power go dead after about 8 hours and I think that should have been mentioned if you're going to ding Hyper-G for rec players not knowing when it goes dead. Benefits of Hyper-G are: comfort, tension maintenance (after initial loss), price (my stringer charges half of ALU Power for Hyper-G), spin. The major downside is lack of feel.

[@jorgetirado3201]

Hey good list and video! What about head strings? Lynx tour is great, and people love velocity as a great multi that doesn’t fray and a low price point. Also, in terms of soft spin oriented strings, what about tour bite soft? Thanks!

[@ph-tennis]

Thanks @jorgetirado3201 - appreciate the feedback! We use a lot of Lynx in the shop and like Velocity but didn’t think it had as much feel as NXT Soft so it didn’t make the list. Tour Bite Soft is a good string too, but we felt it went dead too quickly so didn’t beat out the other Polys that did make the list

[@jorgetirado3201]

@@ph-tennis would velocity work better than nxt soft in a hybrid since it’s not known for fraying as much?

[@ph-tennis]

@@jorgetirado3201 potentially, yes! We haven’t tried that so couldn’t confirm 100%

[@jstokes55]

Love 4G Soft!

[@Rodman108]

Curious about your take on Poly Tour Strike and Poly Tour Rev.

[@ph-tennis]

Strike is very harsh. Nowhere near as nice to play with as PTP ... haven't used Rev so can't comment

[@chuckfriebe843]

I have a Babolat Pure Strike(most recent version)and I gotta say, the PolyTour Strike is an amazing string. I have tried many strings, I this racquet at least, and the comfort, pocketing, and spin is off the charts. It’s a fantastic string. Decent tension maintenance, but I cut mine out every three weeks as I have two racquets to switch up with. Cheers!

[@JovanniG678]

What are your favorite hybrids?? I’m assuming these strings would be on the list and, if so, which would you pair together?

[@ph-tennis]

Hybrids are a tricky one. The theory is you get the pros of both strings, but you also get the cons! None of our coaches use hybrid stringing as the positives to us don’t outweigh the negatives. The idea of putting something durable with something soft is popular but means the soft string gets destroyed by the harder one so be prepared to spend a lot on restrings!

[@julianmansell2379]

Re string 0 and Toroline wasabi X are better than all the strings mentioned. Try the restring 0 in the mains and the wasabi X in the crosses. Incredible spin and incredible maintenance and cheaper than the others. Hands down the best strings out there.

[@ph-tennis]

We have just had both of these strings delivered so we’ll see how they do in our Top Strings of 2024 coming out soon… thanks for the tip!

[@tennispunk2]

NRG2 is a multifilament not a natural gut. Have you tried any of the polyether etherketone strings? Now there is your holy grail of string. Monofilament with natural gut like qualities(very resilient) as well as great tension maintenance. And it has "snap back" characteristics of a Poly.

[@ph-tennis]

We haven’t! Thanks for the recommendation

[@JLKV22]

Hey guys, nice video. Triax or Babolat Xalt cost "almost" like the natural gut... I'd rather choose Head RIP Control. Old but gold, pretty friendly with my arm and way more control and durability than regular multifilaments.

[@ph-tennis]

Funny you say that - we just strung up some new Pure Strikes with Xalt… reviews in coming. We really enjoyed Triax but smashed through it in no time! Our top strings of 2024 is going to be a hard one to agree on.

[@WE-vd8ux]

Confidential in1.20 feels so much better than 1.25. Don´t know why the difference is so massive, maybe due to its preditable and dead feel even in thinner gauges. Durability is still great and because of the strings are not moving as much as with rpm blast the thin gauge still doesn´t feel mushy even in lower tensions, but a lot of livelier than 1.25.

[@villiam7941]

Element and Head Hawk power

[@danschannel169]

Head Lynx Tour is a decent poly.

[@FS-hp9oy]

What about Tecnifibre 4S ??

[@ph-tennis]

Not one we tested this time round - do you like it? Tell us why

[@brunoalves3736]

Hyper G soft is softer tha 4G soft

[@googlereviewer1944]

4G Soft is a low powered control string. It's not actually that soft...more like medium stiff. Alot of the strings in the video are mainstream heavily marketed strings from the last 5-10 years. The string market has changed alot in that time - there are many, many more string options out there for players now.

[@corteez62]

4G Soft is hard to name soft in my opinion, element is soft and more arm friendly string

[@28mcavanaugh]

Solinco always top…

[@joeeagle9531]

great video🏆please review and compare HEAD LYNX TOUR 1.25 against your WINNER 4Gsoft ❔☑❗📶

[@ph-tennis]

Noted!

[@experientialtennis]

Alu Power is durable???

[@ph-tennis]

Comparatively, yes!

[@experientialtennis]

@@ph-tennis in my experience the Alu Power was pure magic with buttery feel for 4-5 hours. After that, I noticed a slight but noticable playability drop and on the 7th+ hour mark it fell completely off the playability cliff (advanced intermediate level player). The 4G on the other hand is stiffer, but lasts much longer.

[@chuckfriebe843]

@@experientialtennis The regular 4G is hard on the arm too. You gotta string way down.

[@MaiTizzle]

@@experientialtennis Yes Alu Power Playability is horrendous

[@applesforakbar]

Holy moly my friends... NRG2 isn't a nat gut string, it's a multifilament. Also Red Code and 4G have some of the highest stiffness ratings of any polyesters in the market - people have blown through their elbows using those strings. I'd consider a revision of this video, esp if your target demo is an average club player

[@ph-tennis]

Thanks for the comment Akbar! You spotted our error! 😆 As with all our reviews, these are the honest opinions of a team of professional coaches so not necessarily definitive, but accurate as far as we’re concerned. Always love to get a debate started so would love to hear what your favourite string is

[@ph-tennis]

And just for clarity, we love the 4G soft, not the standard 4G!

[@chuckfriebe843]

4g Soft is NOT hard on the arm and they didn’t say NRG was gut.

[@Lucian86]

Durability doesn't matter that much. Tension maintenance does

[@tobycolin6271]

Durability is such a bad term. Polys loose tension and go dead far to quickly. A month is not long enough for the twice a week player. Tension maintenance is far more important than durability. String up your racquet monitor using spinster (other apps available) and see how your string perform over time. Alu power rough last less than a month on court or in your bag. Currently 4 weeks in with triax and little tension lost.

[@lucasmastelarocunha1670]

Alu power has much worse tension maintenance than hyper g, alu power goes dead in 3 hours

[@andrewkolb1560]

Untracable. Kirschbaum.

[@griffinmpc8144]

Alu Power is durable? If you mean it lasts for a while before breaking - sure. If you mean it remains playable? LMAO. You've lost my trust.

[@ph-tennis]

Durable in the sense that it last a while before breaking, yes! Agree that it’s not as good as holding its tension, unlike 4G (which is one of the reasons it won!). As mentioned in the video, so much will depend on how much you play and in fact how you play, so there’s plenty of variables for every player. I hope this helps restore some trust!

[@caioscofield]

I feel the list overbiased on overpriced strings. There's a key reason solinco is winning, it's 40% cheaper and arguably just as good.

[@jwc865]

ReString zero. & wasabi

[@kilmoretimmyg]

How have you called NRG2 a natural gut string? The fact it's in a reel is the first give away it's a multifilament. Not sure what's more embarrassing. Calling NRG2 a natural gut or the fact none of you realised.

[@ph-tennis]

Whoops! A slip of the tongue. I hope you can forgive us!

[@tennispunk2]

You may want to take this video down as it is hurting your credibility. It's going to cost you business, possibly losing current customers.

[@61msl]

Alright gents your NRG2 review stating it’s a natural gut (🤣🤣🤣) is getting you roasted on some coaching and gear forums. You getting attention for all the wrong reasons here……….just an FYI

[@ph-tennis]

Thanks for the heads up!

[@josephkulakowski3392]

Restrung Zero!!

[@Crozzer95]

NRG isn't natural gut lads...

[@ph-tennis]

😬

[@ph-tennis]

Whoops!

[@svlagonda7417]

This is the most atrociously inaccurate comparison of strings I have ever seen

[@ph-tennis]

Love the passion and feedback! Would love to know where you think we went wrong…and what would be your top 5?

[@gavlatennis2824]

I have to agree with the other poster as well. Your video makes zero sense. I've strung hundreds, possibly thousands of racquets, and your descriptions of the strings just aren't accurate. 4G for example is one of the stiffest strings out there.

[@ph-tennis]

@@gavlatennis2824 For clarity, 4G Soft, not just 4G. It’s soft for a poly string and when you consider it’s tension maintenance and durability, it scores very highly

[@bojack3827]

4G Soft isn't actually that soft despite the name. It might be slightly softer than normal 4G but that's because normal 4G is probably your stiffest most arm shredding poly you can possibly get. This video just rides the marketing bandwagon IMO.

[@TheodorosKolokotronis799]

Lynx tour guys. The new best overall poly ❤

[@ph-tennis]

As you can see, we disagree ... but we'd never claim to be the authority of such things! Pleased you've found a string you like though, some people never stop trying ...

[@TheodorosKolokotronis799]

@@ph-tennis ok i ll give you my top 3. 4G, Confidential and Lynx Tour. Let’s see how hawk power, razor soft and Luxilon echo play…. 2023 incoming!