“Many top pros use natural gut strings”, is our usual answer when asked what our professional clients use. More specifically, Babolat VS is the top choice of the pros. With our years of experience stringing on the pro tours, we’ve seen a lot of changes over the years, but the one thing that remains consistent is the top players choice of string. Their choice is really no surprise. Natural gut is unmatched for its responsiveness, feel and resiliency. Even with the recent advances in synthetics and the popularity of polyester strings, gut is still tops. Pros using polyester often do so by combining the poly with gut in a hybrid.

Gut strings are made from the intestines of cows (cats were never involved!). “The first tennis strings for tennis racquets were adapted from strings used for musical instruments.” Says Jean-Louis Boyre, of Babolat. Sheep intestines was the material of choice then. In 1875, two years before the first Championships were held at Wimbledon, the Babolat company transferred its expertise in gut strings for use in tennis racquets.” Now, over 125 years later, the company is run by the sixth generation of the Babolat family, and it is the largest distributor of natural gut tennis strings in the world.

Natural gut is superior to synthetic strings because it was once a living material. Just as wood - a natural, living material - used in construction because it can breathe, expand and contract and provides strength with flexibility, the tissue from a cow's intestine provides properties that synthetically manufactured fibers cannot. "The resiliency, elasticity and ability to hold tension cannot be reproduced in synthetics," says Boyre.

The ability of a string to deflect and pocket the ball, then snap back quickly to its original form determines its power. Stiff synthetics such as kevlar snap back quickly but lack elasticity, while more flexible synthetics pocket the ball, but don't spring back as quickly. The elasticity and resiliency of natural gut gives it the best of both worlds, providing both power and responsiveness.

The professional players that we string for tell us that gut gives them more "feel" of the ball than synthetics. They say that the ball seems to dwell on the strings longer.

The biggest reservations that non-professional players have in using gut are cost and breakage. Natural gut is expensive, no question. "It is a very labor intensive process to manufacture the string," says Babolat's Boyre. Although it costs more to string with gut at the outset, it may prove more cost effective in the long run.

First, natural gut may last longer in your racquet than synthetic strings. Because it retains its elasticity and resiliency - hence its playability - for a longer percentage of its life than synthetic string, you can use gut for a longer period of time. If you're an active player playing two or three times per week, a synthetic string will last approximately two to three months. Gut strings will last four to five months.

According to test done by the U.S. Racquet Stringers Association, two identical racquets were measured over a twenty-hour period. One racquet was strung with gut at 68 pounds, the other with a synthetic string at the same tension. After eight hours, the synthetic string lost 18% of its original tension, whereas the gut string lost only 1% of its tension. After the full twenty hours, the synthetic lost an additional 20%, the gut only 10%.

If you're a big string breaker, gut may prove more costly because it won't last any longer than most synthetics of similar gauge. If you don't break strings often, natural gut string may prove to be more cost effective for you.

Also, if you have any problems with tennis elbow, gut will provide more comfort and less shock than any other string.

If you're not a string breaker, give gut a try. But, we warn you --- you may never play with a synthetic string again!