Tennis racket string tension

[lingus75]

I need a re-string on my 12(ish) year old Pro-Kennex racket and after being asked what tension to have I have no idea. There are no recommended tensions on the frame so I am at a loss.

When new the racket retailed at just under £200 but as it was a sale model I paid £100 (model name is Legend KHN Destiny), so it was a very high quality racket in its day. It is heavier than todays models and has a thin-thick frame (like a Prince Thunderstick for those who remember!) with some cool Carbon weave. Anyway, I love this racket and don't want to break the frame. I play hard courts and have a powerful game so am looking for more control, hence higher tension.

I am not expecting anyone to know exact figures, but is there a rough guide for older rackets as I can't find anything on the net.

Thanks.

[porkanut]

Broke a string last week (just started playin again), my racket is also an older model circa 8 years old. In the past always went for tension around 60-65 which gave me a good mix between control, power & feel even though I hit with fairly heavy spin.

Off to get it re-strung tommorrow so will see what they say & let you know if they give any advice

PN

[Golfy]

lingus75 said:

I need a re-string on my 12(ish) year old Pro-Kennex racket and after being asked what tension to have I have no idea. There are no recommended tensions on the frame so I am at a loss.

When new the racket retailed at just under £200 but as it was a sale model I paid £100 (model name is Legend KHN Destiny), so it was a very high quality racket in its day. It is heavier than todays models and has a thin-thick frame (like a Prince Thunderstick for those who remember!) with some cool Carbon weave. Anyway, I love this racket and don't want to break the frame. I play hard courts and have a powerful game so am looking for more control, hence higher tension.

I am not expecting anyone to know exact figures, but is there a rough guide for older rackets as I can't find anything on the net.

Thanks.

Higher tensions will give you more control and more spin. You are also likely to break more strings if your restring is tight as there is more friction on the strings. If you do not naturally break many strings this will not be an issue to you.

Lower tensions will give you more power but all less spin and less control.

If its an old racket that you don't want to risk damamging I would recommend not going above 65lbs, although many rackets can take much higher tensions. CTS Thunderstick being one, due to its power, along with a Head of the same generation (can't remember its name) which I often strung about 70lbs.

The person doing the restring may offer you different strings too. Generally speaking the thinner a string, the more touch and feel you will get whereas a thicker string may last longer but not have so much feel.

Go for between 60 and 65 and see how you get on.

[lingus75]

Thanks for the advice both of you. It just so turns out that a colleague of mine has a cousin who used to be a coach who had one of the rackets I have and used to string it to 58lbs so I picked 60lbs.

I picked a Prince Synthetic string so I should be safe. Far safer than the 52lbs I almost picked after seeing that Nadal picked 55lbs and this is classed as high tension! I was told that one of the reasons, was that the pro's obviously get their rackets re-strung every day or two so they never lose tension and this was something the 'normal' players have to take into account.

Thanks.

[cwoodsie2]

I'd agree - anything over 60lbs is a lot so i'd be careful going over that. I use the Andy Roddick blue Babalot racquet which I bought about 18 months ago and that's strung at 58lbs. On the advice of my pro mate, i'm now using two different types of strings - harder & wider vertical strings for the power and softer & thinner strings on the vertical which seem to give more feel.