Kevlar Crosses!?!?

Through M's introduction, T asked if I could take a look and see if I could recommend something for his existing strings setup.

The first glance at his racket strings shocked me!

Not only was the kevlar and syn gut hybrid set in the wrong order - with kevlar in the crosses, there was also a double string knot tied at the bottom 6th main.

My first question was, if there has been any pain or discomfort in his wrist or elbow from playing with that setup. Luckily, the racket was very flexible. Else it would have been disastrous!

Since T hits flat, I advised him to cut this out and re-string it with plain old synthetic gut.

The weight printed on the racket throat stated 275 grams but did not specify if that was strung or unstrung. So a quick check on the scale was done. 302 grams strung and with dampener.

Then I measured the inside hoop length and width with the syn gut/kevlar setup. Length was 322mm and width 255mm.

Then I cut out the strings and checked the unstrung inside hoop dimensions. About 326mm by 256mm. So the syn gut/kevlar caused a distortion of 4mm and 1mm respectively.

The racket was then strung with a full bed of synthetic gut. Strung inside hoop was 326mm and 254mm. Distortion from unstrung was 0mm and 2mm respectively.

T also mentioned the butt cap was shaky. So I removed the staples and checked if the pallet or foam was intact.

A common mistake is to use super glue to hold the butt cap stable. It will work for a while, but then the entire foam would disintegrate as super glue melts foam.

So I used thick double-sided adhesive tape to tighten the fit, then sprayed a squirt of rubbing alcohol to activate the tape before pushing the butt cap in firmly. Then stapled it down. That took care of the wobble.

T's grip was a little too big for him. To reduce it by half a size (1/16"), I stretched out the replacement grip a little before wrapping it back. That brought the grip size down from 4 3/8" to 4 5/16".

Hopefully the grip stays and he has a more enjoyable game with this.

This post was meant to document the changes made for T, and perhaps a reminder to fellow tennis players that kevlar should never be used in the crosses. Unless one wants his wrist or elbow destroyed.