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Fishing line for tennis

Q: I bought a spool of Momoi 150-pound monofilament fishing line in the hopes that it would work as well as the more expensive monofilament tennis string I’ve been using. There are 1,650 yards per spool, and a spool costs $109, so a 40-foot length of string is costing me only 88 cents. Have you ever heard of anyone else doing this?

A: We tested the Momoi string you describe, and while it might be great for fishing, it leaves something to be desired for using in tennis racquets. Our lab tests show the stiffness at 236 pounds/inch (which is high for a nylon) and the tension loss of 13.4 pounds, which is also fairly high. The unstrung diameter ranged from 1.29 to 1.34 mm, and strung the diameter ranged from 1.23-1.25 mm, making it roughly equivalent to a 16L gauge tennis string. When strung at 60 pounds on a Wilson Pro Staff 6.1 Classic (16 x 18 pattern), the stringbed stiffness was 61, which is relatively low. The fishing line actually seemed less pleasant to install than some of the new polys that have become available.

Unfortunately, we were unable to measure the 24-hour tension loss, as the string broke in the frame overnight, sitting in the rack, so neither were we able to playtest it. However, as a stiff string that loses a lot of tension over time, it probably wouldn’t be our favorite string. The price is attractive, but we’ve purchased 660-foot reels of string for under $18, which works out to about $1.09 per 40-foot set of actual tennis string. Even if you spend $30 on a 660-foot reel, you’re paying only a dollar more per 40-foot set, and it seems that you would get more stringing and playing enjoyment out of the tennis string, and probably more durability as well.

From the May 2004 issue
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