2026 Polyester String Tierlist
How to Change the Data:
Open the master spreadsheet.
File → Make a Copy
Now you’ve got your own spreadsheet when you can update all the scores as you wish. Want to update pricing to reflect your country? Maybe change “Beckett Approved” to viewer approved? And of course, you can adjust all the other scores as you see fit!
Methodology
It is extremely challenging to effectively rate 150 strings tested over a period of 5+ years. The main challenges are:
Accounting for different racquets used.
Accounting for how your game changes over time.
Attempting to remember nuances in playability that may have been forgotten over time.
Dealing with varying testing conditions, like weather, altitude and opponent.
To overcome these challenges, I felt it best to simplify the rating system using scores out of 3 rather than out of 10. Scores with a base 10 require better consistency and nuance. Using our subjective experience, can we truly precisely, and consistently, judge a string’s spin, differentiating a 6/10 spin string from a 7/10 spin string? Due to the inherent and incredible adaptability of the human body, I think that it’s unlikely ANYONE could do so with any level of repeatability.
To simply the scoring system for the puny human psyche, I have elected to rate most things out of 3, as I think we can generally distinguish performance as “above average,” “around average,” and “below average.”
Ratings
Strings are rated out of 13, with a minimum possible score of 3 and a maximum possible score of 13. The overall score out of 13 is the sum of the following categories:
Playability. Scored from 1-3.
Durability. Scored from 0-3.
Value. A formula based on US MSRP which is indexed to be scored from 1-3.
Competition. Scored from 1-3.
Beckett Approved. Scored from 0-1.
Overall scores were then tallied and assigned a tier, assuming that the Tier List should follow a normal distribution, with most strings being either average (C-Tier) or good (B-Tier).
S-Tier: 13/13.
A-Tier: 10-12.
B-Tier: 8-9.
C-Tier: 6-7.
D-Tier: 4-5.
F-Tier: 3/13.
Playability
Inherently, rating a string for “playability,” is deeply subjective. We somehow have to loop-in and combine a string’s average performance across several metrics, like power, forgiveness, control, feel, spin and comfort.
Generally, a string’s playability score will be heavily influenced by a player’s priority list for performance. Someone who values spin highly and control less will likely rate ReString Zero quite well, whereas, someone who doesn’t value spin but values control and feel is likely to rate ReString Zero more poorly.
For the purposes of this tier list, I generally rated strings for their target mission. For example, ALU Power, earns a 3 in playability, despite having relatively poor spin, because it’s target mission is more about balancing power/control/feel.
Further, playability is based on how a string plays at it’s peak. This means ALU Power is judged based off a fresh stringjob, when the string plays its best, whereas Grapplesnake Solider, is judged based off playability after 30-60mins of hitting, when that string breaks in and begins to play its best.
Playability Scoring:
3 - Above average.
2 - Around average.
1 - Below average.
Durability
Durability appears to be a completely objective measure however it’s, once again, deeply subjective. Generally, durability reports are simply based off how long a string personally lasts me, or how long it takes for a string to stop performing it’s best. This means that both tension maintenance and notch resistance are taken into account.
Durability Scoring:
3 - Plays well for many hits.
2 - Plays well for a few hits.
1 - Plays well for 1 hit.
0 - Noticeable playability degradation within the first hit.
You’ll note that it’s possible to score a 0 in durability which will be quite important in the value section.
Value
To be continued…
Biases
Some critical biases that will affect scoring:
I’ve used several different racquets to test these strings. Years ago, I tested several strings in my Solinco Whiteout 18×20 V1. More recently, I’ve used a Babolat Pure Aero Rafa 290g. Because the string pattern on the Rafa is so open, it’s much harder on strings than the dense-patterned Whiteout.
My tennis has changed over the last few years. These days, I’m hitting harder and more consistently, so strings aren’t lasting as long.
Weather, some strings are tested in Winter while others in Summer. Temperature can affect tension maintenance.
As string technology has improved, I expect more from the playability of strings. Specifically, I highly value forgiveness in polyester string’s which I prioritized less in the past. This means I could be grading more recent strings harsher than older ones.
While I’d love to test all 108 strings at the same tension in the same racquet against the same opponent in the same weather, it’s just not feasible. I think one needs at least 1 week of hitting to properly evaluate a string, so assuming no vacations and indoor tennis only, I’d still take over 2 years to compile the data.
And even then it would be imperfect.
