The Best Multifilament Tennis Strings

What are Multifilament Strings?

Multifilaments are woven together from thousands of microfibres into a string, hence the name, “multi-filament”.

They are extremely popular amongst amateur, club and even county level players due to their excellent levels of softness, power and bang for their buck!

Players often choose to string them in a hybrid (different strings in the mains and cross strings of a racket) or simply, as a full bed for the ultimate experience in power and comfort.

Benefits of Multilaments/ Synthetic Guts

All strings have their strengths and drawbacks. This section of the article will help identify these in relation to mulfilaments and help you build a fuller picture of these before making any decisions.

Here are the four most predominant benefits to these strings.

Benefit 1 – Power

The biggest benefit of these or any elastic based string, for that, matter is power.

Multifilament strings are very elastic and have an incredible rebound effect.

Power, although isn’t everything, is extremely desirable at any level of tennis.

Being able to find more mph – perhaps more than physical body allows, in the right situation can be valuable to some players.

Players on tour, who already have a lot of their own natural power, achieved through superior technique, generally wouldn’t find as much value in any additional power.

After a certain point, control becomes much more desirable, so pro player setups tend to be geared much more towards this.

However, for a club level player, switching to a multifilament string could be the different between winning and losing on a regular basis.

Benefit 2 – Touch

Another benefit from these strings is the silky-smooth levels of response they can provide to almost any racket!

Players emotionally stirred by the net rushers, like Pat Rafter and Pete Sampras in their prime, will certainly find some magic on court with these types of strings.

Benefit 3 – Comfort

Touch and comfort naturally go hand in hand, so it should come as no surprise that tennis players with minor or chronic injuries will find these strings a delight!

Players with flatter strokes or those with a more “old school” style of tennis will find value in the comfortable response of multifilaments.

Benefit 4 – Cost

This is an underdiscussed topic amongst tennis websites and retailers!

Multifilaments are much more accessible and cheaper than their more expensive counterparts, natural gut, whilst still offering a sensational experience on court.

Popular Multifilament Strings

There are all sorts of brands, colors and constructions of multifilament strings out there online, but we don’t want to open a can of worms, so to speak!

Therefore, we are only going to focus on those which we feel offer the plushest hitting experiences, both in terms of performance and price and that are truly worth your time to try out!

So, there you have our top, recommended list of multifilament strings! These all have similar levels of overall playability but do have subtle differences that you’ll want to experiment with.

For players serious about their tennis, it really doesn’t get any better than these.

What do the Professionals Use?

Players like Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Dominic Thiem all use an elastic form of string in their setups.

Since, they are not limited by budget, they all use natural gut strings (the enhanced form of multifilaments, you could think!) in a hybrid setup, paired with polyester strings.

However, during their youth we are quite sure that they would have been using multifilament strings in either their mains or cross strings for a more cost-effective solution before making it big!

On the female side of the tour, on average, more use an elastic string in a hybrid than males.

Again, almost all opting for natural gut over a multifilament but likely having used these during their development as junior players when natural gut wasn’t necessary.

Considering Your Game Style

Are you a player who grinds from the back and values control most predominantly?

Are you a player who loves to serve and volley and seeks buttery touch and feel?

Are you more of an all-round player?

Perhaps, you, (like almost everyone!) falls somewhere in between these categories, but values one most predominantly.

Getting to the bottom of these questions and discovering what really makes you tick as a tennis player is critical in discovering the string that is right for your game.

Multifilament strings certainly won’t be suitable for all of you reading this article, today.

Look at Rafael Nadal.

He loves to stay on the gas, ripping heavy topspin from the back of the court, serving consistently with heavy slice, and only coming to the net occasionally to kill the point.

We’ve written loads of pieces on various players, their racket and string setups, as well as providing personalized advice to thousands of amateur tennis players across the globe with our Custom Fitting Programs.

However, the one scenario we could never imagine is Rafael Nadal ripping a racket loaded with multifilament or natural gut strings!

Why?

Aside from the fact he’d probably shred it in seconds due to his ridiculously powerful and spin orientated forehand, it just wouldn’t bring out the most from his game.

Control is everything for Nadal.

He has physical strength in oodles as well as a powerful racket, and therefore requires a string that will help him to tame this power as well as enhancing the spin production that he values so much.

A multifilament string would supply him with too much power and also a lesser response in terms of spin.

Given the talent he has, I’m sure he’d find a way to make it work, but he’d certainly feel a little more “exposed” when faced with the pressure of a Federer or Djokovic.

Despite Nadal’s preferences, multifilaments could be for you if:

a) You’re looking for a little more pop in your setup. The best multifilaments on the market provide an extremely elastic response and pleasing mph on serve and groundstrokes!

b) You’re looking for a little more touch in your setup. Elastic strings, like synthetic guts, naturally offer more superior levels of touch and feel than their distant polyester cousins.

c) You’re looking for an alternative to natural gut. Natural gut strings are the best type of strings in the “elastic string family”, however they are not particularly cost effective or durable during adverse weather. Opting for a multifilament/ synthetic gut will save you money, long term.

d) You’re looking for something arm friendly. We’ll discuss this further in the next section of the article. Multifilaments provide a wonderfully comfortable hitting experience.

e) You’re a junior player. All too often we see children as young as 7 or 8 swinging rackets strung with hard, polyester strings. We’re sorry if this offends anyone out there, but this is just plain wrong. Hitting a ball with unforgiving strings like these (designed for professional players) before the body is properly physically developed lends itself to a breeding ground for injuries.

Considering Injury Issues

As we previously touched upon, premium level multifilament strings will feel like heaven for the joints of those with ongoing hand, wrist and arm injuries or general joint issues.

Even when strung at a higher tension, these strings offer an unparalleled level of performance in terms of touch and comfort when strung in a full bed.

Stronger players may want to consider utilising a multifilament in a hybrid setup, combined with a polyester, or opting for a full polyester string bed.

Fine Tuning Your Setup

We hope this article has been very useful to you in helping you selecting the best possible multifilament string for your game.

Remember, if budget is not an issue, both in terms of regular string purchases or frequent restringing, we would suggest you give a natural gut string a try as it offers the best performance in terms of power and feel.

However, so many of the premium multifilaments out there on the market today really do offer a sensational hitting performance.

So, whatever you decide, you’re in for a wonderful hitting experience!

With so many strings out there, it can still be difficult to know exactly where to start and you also run the risk of buying a lot of strings before you find “the one”.

Therefore, we’d like to personally invite you to check out our very popular Custom Fitting Service for tennis players, just like you, looking to find the right setup to fully optimize their performance on court.

We’ll help you find the exact racket and strings to transform you into a living weapon on court!