Spin Ball: The Physics of Polyester String

Spin Ball: The Physics of Polyester String

TENNIS.COM article published today highlights the "Pros of Poly" and why using Polyester strings is now almost mandatory for the top players of the game.
The modern game of tennis has become so powerful with the advent of racket technology that we are seeing men's forehands regularly approaching and even exceeding 100 MPH! At such high velocities, the forces of gravity are not strong enough to pull a normal groundstroke down into the court fast enough...

Enter Topspin and the Secret of Polyester

With Polyester and Co-Polyester strings, the strings will actually stretch for a few milliseconds with the ball, stop and then quickly snap back like taut bow. This action helps whip the ball and rotate it sideways as it comes off the strings, creating the top spin effect. Normal topspin generated from nylon or multi-filament strings "brush" against the ball but do not have the same recoiling effect. 

TENNIS.com: Racquet experts generally say that string technology has impacted the game more than the racquet technology in recent years. Do you have any thoughts on the next wave of string technology and what it would mean to tennis?

Agassi Agassi inducted into Tennis Hall of Fame 2011

Andre Agassi was inducted into this year's Tennis Hall of Fame. Winner of the all 4 Tennis Majors and the Olympic Gold medal for the USA, he is a living legend of the game.

As a New Year's resolution, I pledged to finish reading his book, Open: An Autobiography. It wasn't hard, as I just had less than 100 pages left. But the final chapters were so good and the book was so tough to put down, that I completed my resolution on Day 1.