Why do tennis racquet strings break

Once the strings are cut and the tension is released , it is fine to just leave the bits of string in the racquet. Snipping the strings is important because of the tension on the strings and the stress placed on the frame by the strings. When a string breaks, it immediately loses tension and the strings around it loosen up as well. This results in a string bed with varying tension that exerts uneven forces on the racquet.

This uneven force can ultimately cause a frame to bend or warp, which is obviously not ideal for your racquet or your game. The best and quickest way to remove the strings without unnecessarily stressing your frame is to snip diagonally at the intersection of main and cross strings.

Framing a ball is one of the most frequent, if not THE most frequent reason for premature string breakage. Half of the ball collapses over the outside of the frame and half of it inflicts tremendous downward pressure on the inside of the hoop right where the string exits the grommet.

Strings are not designed to take this kind of stress and they will typically snap. A cheap string is another culprit. Industry-wide prices for string are consistent with typical retail keystone practices. Racquet dragging — We often see players who constantly drag the side of their racquet on the court when going for a low ball instead of bending at the knees to make the shot. This will eventually wear the bumper guard down to a point where the string channel in the bumper guard top piece or side-channel no longer protects the string.

This leaves the string exposed raised to a level where dragging the racquet on the court will result in scrapping the string, eventually causes it to break prematurely. Old and brittle strings see 5 can be a problem as well. String becomes brittle due to improper storage stored in direct sunlight or too little humidity in the air and becomes a prime candidate to break too prematurely.

A professional stringer has a responsibility to maintain a high quality of string in their inventory which prevents this from ever becoming an issue. Racquet abuse is another one on the list. No need to explain anything here. Improper storage can wreak havoc with strings.

How you care for your racquet can make a HUGE difference in the health of your string. If you leave the racquet in the cab of the car or in the trunk in the middle of August the strings are going to be affected by the extreme temperatures. It may be 80 degrees on the ground when your plane departs but once you reach 30, feet the temperature in the belly of that plane is much colder than you think.

Nicking the string or pulling the cross strings too fast can burn notch the main strings and set you up for short string life. The same applies to the kid on the local high school tennis team. The second most common cause of string breakage is directly related to how customers use string.

In squash, for example, we commonly see problems with men who overpower their string by literally hitting the ball much harder than they need to. A guy buys a squash racquet with thick, low grade factory string. He plays squash for a while and learns to serve overhand and to hit the ball really, really hard. Since the factory strings that were in the racquet when he purchased it are thick and designed for durability rather than playability, the player experiences no consequences for hitting this hard.

Eventually, however, the strings in the racquet break and the player brings the racquet in for re-stringing. For whatever reason, he decides to go with a highly playable string like Tecnifibre or DNAMX, which are both playable but not very durable. Nobody is at fault here. This is simply physics. The strength of the player overpowers the strength of the string. This string is designed for professional squash players who consistently hit the ball in the centre of the stringbed. It is not designed for overhead pounders who hit the ball hard and off centre.

The player and the string are both fine on their own; they are just wrong for each other. This player needs a durable string, not a playable string. The important thing to understand here is that nobody can know that the player and the string are wrong for each other until they try to play together. This is a matter of trial and error. Until they try, the error cannot be detected. Given how we do things in our shop, this is highly unlikely and we suspect this is true for most professional stringers.

A more likely explanation is that something else is at fault. Just bring your racquet in for us to look at.