Spin doctor's cure for tension

Stringing revolution is the next step forward for tennis equipment. Chris Bowers investigates

Advances in technology have not always been kind to tennis.The graphite and kevlar racquets which replaced wood may have given the club player a taste of big hitting and upped the ace count among professionals, but they are also held responsible for having wrecked the spectacle of the men's game.

Tennis fans could therefore be forgiven for being sceptical at the thought of another technological revolution, but racquet stringing is about to take a large leap into the future. And rather than making tennis faster and less watchable it might just make it more attractive.

The development is both simple and complex. At its simplest it involves a considerable enlargement of the "sweet spot", the area in the centre of the racquet which gives the player optimum contact with the ball. But it is also likely to mean a reduction in vibrations shooting down the shaft into the player's arm, lessening the risk of tennis elbow and other similar ailments.

A racquet has two strings, a long vertical one and a shorter horizontal one. If both are strung to the same tension (26kg or 57lb are about mid- range), there will be an optimum area around the middle for striking the ball. But as all but the two central strands are of differing lengths, the further away from the middle you hit the ball, the less power and control you have. Manufacturers have tried to enlarge the sweet spot by making racquet heads bigger, but the scope is limited, and the larger the racquet, the more awkward it is.

Stringers have known for years that if you have the strings at differing tensions, you can enlarge the sweet spot. The problem has been getting strings to stay at the right tension. The holes in the racquet frame which the strings go through are made to be smooth; the differences soon even themselves back out.

That now seems likely to change. An Australian racquet "scientist", former touring professional and coach, Marshal McMahon, has invented a little device which could revolutionise the stringer's - and therefore the player's - life. He calls it "Starlock", and it is essentially tennis's version of a jamming cleat found on sailing boats. It fits into the holes in the frame and holds the strings firmly in place at the tension they have been set at, which means neighbouring strings can now be held at different tensions.

McMahon has been using John Newcombe and Tony Roche, the former Wimbledon doubles champions and now captain and coach of the Australian Davis Cup team, as his guinea pigs. Roche said: "We're very excited about it. It's better than conventional stringing; it allows players to get more spin, and it's better on mishits. It should improve the game at the highest level. John and I are certainly trying to get our players interested in it."

Newcombe used a trial model in a veterans' match at this year's US Open. It has also been used once on the ATP Tour, by the Australian Richard Fromberg in Sydney two years ago. He lost to Richard Krajicek 7-6 6-3, but was faced afterwards with questions about how he had played so uncharacteristically well, as indeed was Newcombe.

The device is now ready for full use on the ATP and WTA Tours, perhaps even this week as the men start in Adelaide and Qatar, and the women open their year in Brisbane and Auckland.

However, while the professionals will clearly benefit, the biggest boon of McMahon's technology is likely to be at amateur level. "It means club players will be able to do all the things the top professionals can do," says Brian Robins, a stringer working for the Lawn Tennis Association. "It won't necessarily narrow the gap in standard, but it will allow amateurs to play many of the shots the professionals can play, just at a lower level of proficiency."

McMahon says there are three big advantages of his invention: the enlarged sweet spot, reduced vibrations, and increased spin without loss of power. "I don't like talking about sweet spots," he says, "I prefer to talk about ratios, in particular power-spin ratios. The traditional wisdom in tennis is that if you want spin you string your racquet tightly, and if you want power you string it loosely - McEnroe always had low tension to give him power, and Borg had high tension for his topspin. With my system, you don't have that dilemma - you can get the same amount of spin without any loss of power."

When I used McMahon's racquet, I was struck by the cushioned feel of the ball hitting the strings, a bit like playing with a properly padded table-tennis bat after using a very basic model. In terms of strokes, the main difference seemed to come on the volleys and the sliced backhand - I don't think I missed a volley in the 45 minutes I had the racquet in my hand (and I know I don't hit them all off the middle), and the ball just skidded through when I sliced a backhand approach shot.

The question now is whether it will be a boost or burden to the top-level game. McMahon says the more efficient hitting area on the strings will help the returner against the big servers. "All those lunged returns where players get the last couple of inches of the strings to the ball but can't generate enough power to get the ball back will now be returnable. You're going to get better returns, longer rallies, and the players in more control."

That may be true, but logic also dictates that if the increased spin the server can generate with McMahon's technology makes serves even less returnable than they are at present, then the advantages to the returner will be cancelled out and we will be back to square one yet again.