String Playtest Comparison: Polyfibre TCS 17 vs Polyfibre Cobra 17

About the play tester

About the String

Tester: Voltron of the Talk Tennis message board Playing Level: 4.5 Regular playing equipment: Yonex RDS 001 Midsize Cyber Flash/Prince Synthetic Gut Duraflex @ 56/54 lbs Game Style: All court, topspin and slice on all shots, fast swings Strings being tested: Polyfibre TCS vs/ Polyfibre Cobra Gauge: 17 Racquet(s) string is in: Yonex RDS 001 Midsize Tension: 56/54 Lbs Stringing Polyfibre TCS: I strung TCS two piece, and I must say, it is a breeze to string. Although it's poly, it feels much like synthetic gut in the machine. It's very smooth, and not very stiff at all. I enjoyed stringing it more than any other poly. There were no real problems stringing it, other than it seemed quite slippery. Polyfibre Cobra: Cobra was also strung two piece, but it was not quite so easy to string. It was quite a bit stiffer, making it a little more difficult to weave. It's quite rough, so when I pulled the crosses through they made a little bit of noise. But, overall, it's no harder to string than your standard polyester.

Power Honestly, TCS is quite powerful, for a poly. It felt nice though, but with a little less power, it would do just fine. But, even though it was powerful, I didn't have too much trouble keeping my shots in the court. The Cobra has slightly less power than TCS, but it was still powerful for a polyester.

Control Control was quite good, I found it easy to put the ball where I wanted. Control was hurt a little bit because of the power, but not much. One thing though was that depth control wasn't the best, but most of the time I found myself hitting deep rather than short. Overall, I really liked it control wise. The Cobra had similar control to TCS, but a bit more. I could really put the ball where I wanted, without too many errors. I consistently kept the ball deep and to the corners, so it was very good overall.

ComfortTCS is quite soft, but it's still polyester. I didn't have any trouble with it, but then again, I've never really had arm problems. Still, if you are looking for a good soft polyester, this is the one. Actually, Cobra could have been more comfortable. It's fairly comfortable for a polyester, but I would still stay away from it if I had arm problems. But, if you don't have arm problems, this is a really good choice.

SpinThe spin is very good with the TCS. I found I was hitting very heavy balls with it, and serves had good spin also. I really haven't played with any 1.20 mm polyesters, so that may be why I think it's so good. Spin with Cobra was easier to generate than with TCS. I was consistently hitting heavy topspin off backhands and forehands, but it did seem like flat shots didn't work quite as well with Cobra.

Feel Feel was really good with TCS, it felt more like a stiff multifilament than a polyester, which I really liked. I had good control on my volleys, and groundstrokes as well. Everything felt really good with this string. Feel was just OK with cobra, it felt a little too dead. I found control, but I was having trouble really feeling the ball. I think the stiffness plays a big part in that. But, overall, it's still not too bad.

String Movement It didn't really ever move the TCS at all, cobra was the same way.

Tension Maintenance TCS seemed to drop quite a bit of tension, but it didn't really affect me too much. The cobra didn't drop as much tension, actually, it didn't really drop much tension at all.

Durability About 10 hours, and three USTA matches with TCS. About 5-8 hours with cobra, and one competitive match. (Although not a tournament match.) The durability of both strings seem to be good, as neither of them has frayed, broken, or died so far.

Weather/Temperature: Great weather, about 80 degress most of the time.

Court Surface: Hard and clay courts.

Overall Summary: I really love the TCS, and I'm probably going to switch to it soon. I didn't like cobra as much, although it's still a good string. If cobra was just a little bit less stiff, I would really love it. Overall, two great strings.

Power Polyfibre TCS 80 Polyfibre cobra 65	Control Polyfibre cobra 85 Polyfibre TCS 80	Comfort Polyfibre TCS 70 Polyfibre cobra 60	Spin Polyfibre cobra 90 Polyfibre TCS 85
Feel Polyfibre TCS 80 Polyfibre cobra 55	String Movement Polyfibre TCS 90 Polyfibre cobra 90	Tension Maintenance Polyfibre cobra 90 Polyfibre TCS 70	Overall Playability Polyfibre TCS 90 Polyfibre cobra 75

Playtest date: August, 2007.

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