Solinco Tour Bite and Hyper-G String Comparison

In 2009 Solinco released Tour Bite, a square-shaped co-polyester tennis string with "best of class" levels of spin and precision. In the span of a few short years this sharp edged co-poly not only became a favorite among D1 college players, but it also helped vault Solinco into a top tier string brand. With the introduction of Hyper-G in late 2015, Solinco returned to the grippy square profile that worked so well with Tour Bite. Almost overnight, Hyper-G became a TW staff favorite, and it was quietly popping up in the racquets of ATP touring professionals. That said, our playtest team conducted a comprehensive comparison of these two co-polys, hoping to unearth their differences in the areas of power, control, comfort, feel and tension maintenance. Although we didn't discover huge variations in performance, we did find a number of important subtleties. Here is the breakdown.

The essence of string performance boils down to one word: stiffness. The stiffness of a string not only determines how much shock you'll feel when striking a tennis ball, but it also greatly influences how high and far that ball will fly when struck. In general, stiffer strings project the ball at both a lower trajectory and slower speed. The upside comes in the form of control, which gives advanced players the confidence to attack the ball with their biggest, most powerful strokes. Softer strings, by contrast, typically launch the ball farther and come with a huge upside: comfort.

According to our lab tests and on-court experience, both Tour Bite and Hyper-G fall into the "stiffer" category. This explains why Chris reported that "both of these strings are all about control." The payoff for Chris came in the form of confidence. He explained, "I love the confidence both strings give me to keep swinging big and going after my shots. I felt very, very dialed in with both strings." Although these strings were admittedly very close in terms of overall performance, not to mention construction and composition, Chris ultimately discovered some real differences. He offered, "Tour Bite has a slightly crisper feeling response, and with it came a tad more liveliness. Hyper-G felt slightly deader and more dampened. When it comes to power, these are both strings that are made for power players, not those seeking power. Both are fairly firm playing co-polys and are not designed for players seeking comfort. However, Hyper-G was slightly more comfortable, although there's little difference between them in terms of stringbed stiffness."

"Initially, the stiffness of the two strings felt pretty similar," said Andy, who zeroed in on the fact that these two co-polys are not all that different from each other. "I would consider them both fairly stiff, low-powered strings that are ideally suited for players who like to generate their own power."

Over time, however, Andy noticed some key differences. He explained, "Once the strings started to settle into the racquet I thought the Tour Bite opened up a bit and was a little livelier. By contrast, the Hyper-G retained its more muted, deader response that lent itself to more control over time. The muted, dampened response from Hyper-G also gave me the impression that it was the slightly more comfortable of the two strings."

Spin comes mostly from technique. You can't buy the tornadic angular whip and violent head speed of Nadal's forehand, but there are things you can do to make hitting spin a little easier. For starters, you can find a low powered string that enables you to attack the ball with a more explosive upward cut. Secondly, you can select a string with grippy edges to help the racquet grab the ball, so that it may be viciously rotated (by said explosive cut). Finally, you could select a string with a slippery, low friction surface, so it can snap the ball out of the stringbed with extra rotational force. Or, you could dispense with the theorizing and just pick up a set of Tour Bite or Hyper-G, two strings with — trust us — massive spin potential. But which one will give you more spin? According to Andy, while both offer great spin, one is better. He explained, "For me, Tour Bite stood out as the more spin friendly of the two strings. I thought it grabbed and pocketed the ball better and really allowed me to get the ball diving down at the court when I was hitting heavy groundstrokes. I also thought it slid on itself a little better than Hyper-G, giving me a little extra boost in spin from the 'snapback' effect. Hyper-G is certainly no slouch when it comes to spin, but Tour Bite was exceptional in this category."

According to Chris, there was not a ton of daylight between these strings in the spin department. Ultimately, though, Hyper-G emerged as the victor. He explained, "Both strings continued to compete closely when it came to spin generation. I felt slightly more connected to the amount of spin I was getting with Tour Bite, but Hyper-G seemed to pocket the ball better. In the end, I felt like I was getting slightly more spin with Hyper-G. Still, I was more than happy with the spin I was getting from Tour Bite, and I think both are great options if you want a spin-friendly string."

Soft. Mushy. Stiff. Clean. Muted. Firm. Responsive. Brassy. Plush. Crisp. Dead. Such is the tangled lexicon used by tennis players to make sense of what they feel when ball meets strings. Although this jargon can sometimes seem vague or irreducibly subjective, the category itself ends up being absolutely crucial to why a player prefers one string over another. In fact, during the course of this playtest the primary contrast between Tour Bite and Hyper-G was in the area of feel.

Chris explained, "I thought the biggest difference between these two strings was in feel. Tour Bite feels crisper, and I felt more connected to my shots with it. It also felt more responsive, and I think that's why I found it slightly more powerful than Hyper-G. Hyper-G, in contrast, felt more muted, with a deader response. Although I didn't feel as connected with it, I did feel more confident with Hyper-G in my racquets. I had the sense that I was getting a little more dwell time at impact. I was getting slightly more control on my shots, and my racquet with Hyper-G became my go-to choice out of the two."

Andy also found the feel category to be where these strings truly separated themselves. He explained, "The difference in feel between these two strings was the most noticeable difference during this playtest. Tour Bite offered a crisper, livelier and more responsive feel, while Hyper-G had a softer, more muted and dampened feel. I felt a little more connected to the ball with Tour Bite, while I thought Hyper-G felt a bit softer and more comfortable. The difference in feel reminded me a lot of our ALU Power/RPM Blast comparison. The ALU Power felt crisper and more responsive while the RPM Blast was softer and more muted."

If Benjamin Franklin owned a stringing business he would likely have said that death, taxes and tension loss are the only certainties in life. As with every string we've tested, Tour Bite and Hyper-G lost their fair share of tension and playability over time. This explains why Chris scored this round a draw. He explained, "Both of these strings lasted my required three weeks. I liked them the most for the first week and a half, but the playability remained pretty darn solid for the duration. While a fresh set of either would feel better, I still felt like I was able to play well with both strings at the end of testing. Tour Bite lost a little of its crispness, and Hyper-G seemed to lose some responsiveness. However, these strings last very well compared to many other co-poly strings. No complaints either way from me here."

Armed with diagnostic data, Andy found these strings to be fairly close when it came to tension maintenance. He explained, "I measured the stringbed stiffness at various times during the playtest on our RDC machine, and the data revealed pretty similar tension loss numbers." However, with the passage of time, some differences emerged and Andy was able to draw some conclusions. He offered, "They both lost a very similar percentage of their original tension over time, but Hyper-G ended up losing a little bit more by the end of the test. However, when it came to playability duration, I thought the Hyper-G retained its dead, low-powered response while the Tour Bite opened up and got livelier as the test wore on. I actually started to prefer the Tour Bite because of this livelier response (my personal preference), but the playability of Hyper-G was more consistent throughout the test."

Tour Bite and Hyper-G are two of the most well-built co-polys we've ever playtested. Not only do they have very similar compositions and constructions, but they also both offer about as much control, durability and spin as any poly player could ever need or want. Needless to say, picking an overall winner was a very difficult task. Andy lamented, "This is tough because I love both strings! I've been competing with Hyper-G in my racquets this year, so it's certainly a good fit for my game." Ultimately, though, the feel of Tour Bite won the day. Andy explained, "After getting a chance to revisit and compare Hyper-G side by side with Tour Bite, I'm giving the slight edge to Tour Bite. I enjoyed the crisper, livelier and more spin-friendly response as opposed to the softer, more muted feel of Hyper-G."

Like Andy, Chris also had a hard time picking between these two similar co-polys. He said, "I like both strings very much, so picking a winner here was far from easy. I'm a big fan of firm poly based monofilaments, and both of these strings fit that bill." As the playtest progressed, a winner slowly emerged for Chris. He concluded, "During the test I found myself gravitating more and more to one racquet, and that was the racquet with Hyper-G in it. I had a little more confidence with Hyper-G. I felt like I could get the ball to drop inside the lines better and that allowed me to better utilize the power of my racquet."

Article date: November 2016. If you found this article interesting or have further questions or comments please contact us.