Yesterday @ the World Headquarters was full of interesting stringing! So we decided to do some testing of some of the strings that were just waiting to be broken!

The chosen strings are Ashaway MonoGut ZX Pro 17, Tecnifibre Triax 17, and Volkl V-Star 18—three totally different materials. Our purpose is to determine a string’s properties before it goes into a tennis racquet. Our testing quantifies these properties, and then the “feel” component comes from the player.

A 1000 Words?

We normally do not do more than two (2) overlays because it is a little messy, but these strings begged to be compared, so here it is!

Our Questron can cycle automatically, so the stop points are pretty precise. All strings are cycled from two (2) pounds to fifty (50) pounds and then until they fail or ultimate tensile strength (UTS).

In the Displacement axis (X), the shorter the distance in mm to 50 ponds, the stiffer the string.  The straighter the line is to fail, the more consistent the feeling until failure.

The testing confirms that Tecnifibre Triax does contain some stiffer fibers. The other strings are monofilaments, so there are no fibers.

Racquet Quest uses a bunch of each of these strings for obvious reasons and, of course, depending on the player.