Yonex String Review: Polytour Drive, Rev, Pro
Before I begin comparing these three strings, all of which I am very fond of, I want to discuss the paradox surrounding humans performing athletic testing. I conducted my "research" for this article in about an hour and a half on a typical ball machine. During that time, I probably hit between 300 and 400 balls. Something will - or should - happen throughout these shots: improvement.
Despite my body tiring, I felt myself seeing the ball better, striking it cleaner. It makes sense. After a few hundred forehands, most people are going to improve or - at the very least - "warm up." Combined with the unrealistic expectation of performing the same body movements, striking the ball with identical contact points, and maintaining constant strength while trying to hit imperfectly fed balls, you can see how an equipment comparison can be biased.
I did my best to remain conscious of such biases during my research. I am not a robot, though, and am aware that I cannot generate perfect data. I believe that my analysis of the strings is good, but imperfect.
Equipment Background
The three strings I tested were Yonex's Polytour Drive (yellow), Polytour Rev (white), and Polytour Pro (still yellow, but less so than Drive). The racquets were all Yonex Vcore 98 Generation 7, and were strung at 50 pounds of tension. The Polytour Rev and Polytour Pro strings were unused before testing, but the Polytour Drive was used. I had used both Polytour Rev and Polytour Drive strings extensively in the past, but had never tried Polytour Pro.
Groundstrokes
Most of my time spent researching was here, specifically forehands, where I began with Drive, then Rev, and finally Pro. After trialing each string in the order above, I alternated between the three, testing different aspects, including spin, power, control, etc. I initially felt like Drive had the best power, followed by Pro, and Rev last. However, by the end of my testing, I felt like Drive allowed me to swing the hardest, but Pro generated as much or more power with less effort. Especially impressive considering the Drive strings had likely lost some of the original tension from previous use.
Rev seemed to generate the most topspin, followed by Pro, but was the least forgiving if I messed up on my technique. I don't hit many loopy balls these days, but if I were planning to, I'd string with Rev. Drive had the least feel as far as slices went. Rev and Pro felt similar for slices, but I preferred Pro slightly more.
Volleys
Touch volleys felt the best by far when using Pro; neither Drive nor Rev could compare. Sticking the volleys felt fine for each string, but once again, Pro came in first.
This is a situation where I feel like bias may have affected my results more than I'd have liked. I used the racquet strung with Pro last, so by the time I began hitting with it, I already had a better feel for the ball. I went back and gave Drive one more try on the volleys, and it felt better, but I still think Pro was the best.
Serves
About a week and a half ago, I fell on my wrist while hitting. It didn't affect me too much, but my wrist hurts a bit in the more extreme ranges of motion. So, unfortunately, I have not been serving much and could not test serves too extensively.
In a turn of events, I liked Drive the most for serves. I started with Pro -> Rev -> Drive, so this could be another example of recency bias, but I think I was generating the most power with Drive. Pro and Rev both felt fine, Pro had a bit more spin on it naturally, and I wouldn't say the differences between them were very large.
Wrap Up
By the end of this article, I wanted to say that money doesn't buy you percentage points in tennis. I didn't want the cost of equipment to play a role in how well the ball felt coming off the strings. However, I can't lie when I say that Polytour Pro - the most expensive of the bunch - did feel the best. The only category it didn't place first in was for serves, and the marginal loss of power was made up for with spin.
Financially speaking and from a budget perspective, I would most likely buy Polytour Drive. I use both it and Rev frequently and like both strings very well. Drive offers good quality that may not be quite up-to-par with Pro, but at a much better price point.
