With 70 percent of today’s Top 20 ATP tour players stringing their racquets with its polyester-based string, Luxilon Industries is no longer best known for making fiber products such as medical sutures, climbing rope and bra straps.
Based in Antwerp, Belgium, Luxilon Industries turned its fiber manufacturing expertise into making tennis string 19 years ago, but it wasn’t until 1997 that it gained any ground in the string marketplace. That’s when Gustavo Kuerten, a gangly unknown Brazilian kid, came to the French Open with big dreams in his head and Lux in his racquet and stunned the other players at Roland Garros by winning the thing. They eyed his racquets in the locker room, and began telling their own stringers, “I’ll have what he’s having.”
The Lux word-of-mouth continued to spread as even dyed-in-the-wool traditionalists like Pete Sampras (gut) and Andre Agassi (Kevlar/nylon) gave Lux a brief whirl. Ivan Lendl flirted with Luxilon; because he was often breaking his gut strings with his over-the-top 75-pound tension, he liked Luxilon’s durability. But Lendl ultimately decided to pass, because he had little use for its spin-enhancement quality, says racquet-customizer-to-the-stars Nate Ferguson of Priority 1 in Tampa.
“Lendl hit flat and he loved the way [Luxilon] accentuated the topspin, but adding that high level of spin would be have been difficult because he would have had to adjust his entire game,” Ferguson said.
More recreational players are following suit and opting for Lux. But because it can be harsh on the arm, Luxilon (which means “luxury nylon”) is introducing a gentler and cheaper version, the Adrenalin string, this month.
Pro users often combine Lux with gut in either the mains or crosses to soften the blow and dial down their tensions into the mid and lower ranges for an additional measure of comfort as well as power. Filippo Volandri strings at only 26 pounds, the polar opposite of Jurgen Melzer, who strings his poly at an arm-numbing 75 pounds. The high tension enhances Lux’s dead feel, which helps the Austrian take better advantage of his favorite shot, the backhand drop.
Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt string their Pro Hurricane/gut combos at opposite ends—tight for Roddick, to harness his powerful Babolat Pure Drive Roddick GT Plus racquet, and loose for Hewitt, a retriever who lacks Roddick’s power and needs help from the strings.
With the exception of Mike and Bob Bryan, no two players string their poly exactly alike. The Bryans reinforce the truism that twins do everything alike by outfitting their identical EXO3 Ignite Team 95 racquets with the same poly/gut string at the exact same tension, 49 pounds in the mains and 53 in the crosses.
The January/February 2010 issue of TENNIS has a strings-of-the-stars chart; here are some more: