Odyssey Into Poly-Poly Hybrids

Last Updated: July 11, 2022

Poly-poly hybrids having always been on my mind. 3 years ago, my interest hit its peak, I tried tons of crosses and mains. Poly Tour Fire and Red Code Wax were some of my favourite crosses, with Tour Bite being my prefered main. When Grapplesnake release the Neon Dust Hybrid, I had to try it, which would begin the start of my relationship with them. I moved on from the Neon Dust Hybrid in favour of Tour Sniper. The additional effort to find and buy a reel of crosses was simply not worth the mild differences in mains and crosses with poly’s. That said, poly’s have come a very long way since then and there are so many new entrants to the market. Not to mention, Tennis Spin’s recent video really got my synapses firing.

What I’m looking for:

As a seasoned tennis equipment reviewer, I am pretty aware of my preferences. Here they are, in order of priority:

1. Tension maintenance

2. Lower and consistent launch angle

3. Ball pocketing

4. Responsive feel

5. Good ball bite

To narrow things down, we will use Tennis Warehouse University’s String Performance Database. This is an incredibly powerful tool that hold data for spin potential, tension loss and more for the majority of tennis strings on the market.

Priorities for Main Strings:

1. Tension maintenance - Looking at % tension loss and total tension loss in the TWU Database.

2. Lower and consistent launch angle - There doesn’t seem to be good metric for this (maybe “Deflection”), but I think this is a largely going to be based of trial and error, especially since stroke mechanics are such a big factor when it comes to launch angle.

3. Ball pocketing - Looking at “Impact Duration,” also known as dwell time.

4. Responsive feel - No good indicator for this, will have to use trial and error. Typically silver strings feel more responsive to me, as dye is known to have an impact on the performance of polyester.

5. Good ball bite - Looking for a higher “String-on-ball” coefficient of friction.

Priorities for Cross Strings:

1. Tension maintenance - Looking at % tension loss and total tension loss in the TWU Database.

2. Ball pocketing - Looking at “Impact Duration,” also known as dwell time.

3. Snap back - One of the primary drivers of spin, looking for a low “string-on-string” coefficient of friction.

Questions:

1. How important is the relative stiffness for the mains vs. the crosses? Conventional poly-poly hybrids go for a very soft cross with a stiffer main, but more and more pro’s are using gut in the mains with poly in the cross. Perhaps it is preferable to has a softer main and a stiffer cross.

2. How important is the "feel” of the cross string? Mains typically dominate the feel of the stringbed, so does the feel of the cross string even matter that much?

3. Will a rough cross offer superior ball bite over a round string?

4. How will the cutting-edge “multi-poly’s” like Lynx Touch, RPM Soft and Luxilon Smart factor in to the equation?

Starting mains:

Finding a good main is key. I’m going to start by just testing a series of main string candidates in a full bed. I don’t see a point in stabilizing with a constant cross, as the cross is subject to change. I’m looking at strings with a mild shape (nothing crazy like Ultra Cable) and solid tension maintenance that I know have a responsive feel through their silvery colour. For now, the gauge of the main string will be locked at 1.25mm, unless some strings aren’t available at the gauge.

1. Grapplesnake Tour Sniper (my current string of choice).

2. Head Lynx Tour

3. Signum Pro Firestorm

4. Solinco Tour Bite (out of contention, launch angle too inconsistent, especially after a relatively dramatic initial tension loss. Watch our comparison video with Tour Sniper)

5. Grapplesnake Tour M8

6. Grapplesnake Alpha

Starting Crosses:

Once I find a main string that I’m happy with, the next step is finding a good cross. Using the TWU

1. Babolat RPM Power

2. Grapplesnake Liquid Neon Dust

3. Grapplesnake Irukandji

4. Wilson Revolve 17 (revisit)

5. Solinco Revolution

6. Tier 1 Ghost Wire

Ultra Soft Main Candidates:

1. Grapplesnake Liquid Neon Dust

2. Grapplesnake Alpha

3. Head Lynx Touch

4. Babolat RPM Power

Firm Cross Candidates:

1. RPM Rough 17

2. Luxilon 4G 125

3. Kirschbaum Proline X

Experiments:

I’ll continuously update this blog post as I continue this experiment. Links will be below if I create supporting videos or additional blogs posts. Let me know in the comments your thoughts on poly/poly hybrids, what you’ve tried and if you have any winning combinations!