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Hybrid theory

Q: I was just wondering, what are the benefits of putting natural gut in the main strings and Luxilon in the cross strings, as Roger Federer does? I would think there is more durability needed in the main strings, thus it would be better to put Luxilon in the mains and get better feel in the crosses from the natural gut. Does this sound logical?

A: It does sound logical, and it’s why most people who use a hybrid string job (that is, a string job that incorporates two different types of string), put the more durable string in the mains. However, doing things the other way seems to be working for Federer.

Even though recreational players don’t restring as often as the pros do, they may still benefit from experimenting by stringing hybrids “both ways.” In our playtests of three different hybrid strings from Klip, we had one playtest team use the more durable string in the mains, and the other team use the more durable string in the crosses. In the gut/poly X-Plosive and gut/nylon Screamer, playtesters preferred having the gut in the mains. With the gut/nylon Lightning, playtesters preferred nylon in the mains. However, with both X-Plosive and Lightning, the difference between gut mains and gut crosses was much smaller than it was for Screamer.

The bottom line, then, is that you can’t be afraid to experiment, and you never know what combination is going to work for you until you’ve tried it.

From the January 2008 issue
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