# Breaking a string on a tennis racket **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [September 30, 2014, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-a-string-on-a-tennis-racket/700025 "2014-09-30T22:19:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-a-string-on-a-tennis-racket/700025/1 "2014-09-30T22:19:20Z")
You’re playing tennis at your local court. You break a longer string on your only racket. How would your shots be effected by: 1. Yanking the string out completely 2. Wrapping it around neighboring strings ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-a-string-on-a-tennis-racket/700025/2 "2014-09-30T22:36:33Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > You’re playing tennis at your local court. You break a longer string on your only racket. How would your shots be effected by: > > 1. Yanking the string out completely > > 2. Wrapping it around neighboring strings The string is generally continuous for one entire NS or EW direction on the racket. So yanking it out completely would mean removing either the entire weft or warp. I think this would have a huge effect. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-a-string-on-a-tennis-racket/700025/3 "2014-09-30T22:41:58Z")
OldGuy: you mean yanking out vertical string would leave you without ANY vertical string? Obviously that will greatly effect shots. What about wrapping it around neighboring strings? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-a-string-on-a-tennis-racket/700025/4 "2014-09-30T23:21:50Z")
You could likely tie a new knot after pulling it through a few grommets just to salvage the rest of your session - but you’d lose a TON of tension. It’d be far more frustrating to continue playing (for me) to be worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-a-string-on-a-tennis-racket/700025/5 "2014-09-30T23:57:48Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > OldGuy: you mean yanking out vertical string would leave you without ANY vertical string? Typically, a racket is strung with a single string. You can also use a two string method that uses one for all the vertical and one for all the horizontal. Breaking a string will seriously compromise the racket. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-a-string-on-a-tennis-racket/700025/6 "2014-10-01T00:12:58Z")
As you can tell, I don’t play tennis. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2014, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-a-string-on-a-tennis-racket/700025/7 "2014-10-01T00:15:13Z")
If there’s enough friction where it loop around the bends, I think your best bet is to just not touch it. As others have said, it’s one giant string so you can’t just pull it out. What you could do, possibly, is cut it shorter so it’s not flapping around. You could also, like you said, try weaving it around some of the other strings, but I doubt that’s going to do much good. I’ve never had a string break so I don’t know how fast it loses tension if you attempt to keep playing. I’d imagine if you’re a strong player you’d probably get a few more good hits in and that would be it. Maybe finish out the game (or set if your really lucky). You also have to keep in mind, after the racquet has been strong for a while, the nylon get’s ‘dented’ at each place it crosses and that might to a good job of holding it as well, in addition to the rubber grommets along the edge. ETA, [here’s Andy Murray](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRMs1nCk88w) (I don’t keep up with tennis nearly enough any more to have any idea if he’s ‘some guy’ or someone everyone knows) winning a point with a broken string and you can’t even tell anything is wrong. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2014, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-a-string-on-a-tennis-racket/700025/8 "2014-10-01T00:28:59Z")
I’m just upset I have to go murder a cat now! ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2014, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-a-string-on-a-tennis-racket/700025/9 "2014-10-01T02:06:57Z")
Murray is one of the top players.