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String straightening

Q: I had a another local teaching pro tell one of my customers that moving your strings back into place when they get out of line because of a topspin hit reduces the tension. I disagreed. I say it has little to no effect on tension loss. I feel that the strings play better if they are lined up so I encouraged her to do that in between points.

A: The only way that straightening strings could reduce the string tension is if the racquet was delivered freshly strung with the strings crooked. When a straight string is moved out of place, there is probably some small amount of tension rise in that string, but returning it to position merely restores the string to its original state.

To put it another way, if high tension were the only concern, why not string the racquet higher to begin with? Or, why not take a freshly strung racquet and pull each of the strings out of position before playing? The more uniform the stringbed, the better your chances of hitting a good shot.

From the May 2007 issue
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