How to Take Care of Your Tennis Racquet Properly? [Pro Tips]

A tennis racquet is not the cheapest sports item to buy. For a proper racquet, you should spend anywhere between 150 to 250 dollars at least. And you should buy two if you’re an amateur and many more when you’re a competitor. That’s a lot of money.

This is why a good tennis player takes care of his frames to maintain their playability and elongate their lifespan.

Do these tips to ensure your racquet stays in good standing.

1. Use the Recommended Tension

Every racquet comes with a recommended string tension that is printed somewhere in the head or in the shaft.

This is because the manufacturer knows exactly the limits of their racquets and any excessive or low tension might result in the racquet losing its core characteristics like the stiffness, the dampening, the balance, and even the overall integrity of the materials.

Using tension in the recommended bracket will ensure the racquet plays to its full potential and resists longer the court and match conditions.

2. Use a Tennis Bag with an Insulated Compartment

Most top-of-line tennis bags come with a racquet compartment that has thermal isolation. This compartment is designed specifically to keep the temperature cooler during hot days and warm in freezing weather, hence protecting the racquet materials from wearing out.

The thermal compartment ensures that your racquets keep their characteristics and that the strings maintain their tension.

Another important tip is to avoid tucking your tennis bag or your racquets in the car trunk or with the luggage of a plane when traveling.

Finally, when on the court and especially if it’s sunny, avoid letting your racquet directly under the sun, as the UV rays deteriorate the materials of the racquet, and also the strings.

3. Restring every once in a while

It depends of course on the frequency and the intensity of play.

A casual player who hits the court once a month can restring every year with no problems.

An amateur tennis player who plays twice a week should restring his racquet every 2 months.

But, a professional player can restring his racquet every day because he plays with intensity and trains for several hours a day.

To keep your racquet in a good shape, always use good quality and durable strings and adjust the tension depending on the temperature.

Typically, you can increase your string tension by 2 pounds in hot weather and decrease it by 2 pounds in cold weather.

4. Replace Your Grip/Overgrip When It’s Time

A grip is an essential component that offers friction, stability, and sweat absorption. It can last for more than a year before it breaks. When it starts ripping apart or losing its tackiness and comfort, then you need to replace it.

Similarly, an overgrip is necessary to provide more comfort, tackiness, and absorption. You should always carry multiple overgrips in your bag and replace them after one or two tennis sessions.

This is vital to ensure racquet protection, and good playability and to avoid the racquet slipping off your hands and getting damaged, or worse, resulting in arm pain.

Read: The Difference Between a Tennis Racquet Grip and Overgrip

5. Avoid Hitting the Racquet Against the Ground

This must be the hardest tip to accomplish because it happens a lot to pick up low balls using a slice, which results in hitting the soil and causing scratches on the surface of the racquet.

And, the damage is greater when you play on hard surfaces.

Therefore, just be aware that this happens in every match. So, try to avoid hitting your racquet often against the court surface if you really want to minimize the damage as much as possible.

It can be useful if you’re the type of guy that sells old racquets.

6. Control Your Emotions

It might seem funny, but the biggest cause of racquet breaks on the professional Tour is almost certainly players losing their temper and breaking their racquets.

Players like Kyrgios, Bublik, or Benoit Paire are champions when it comes to breaking one or multiple racquets in a single game as an act of frustration.

Therefore, if you are an amateur or a semi-pro tennis player, save your money and avoid breaking your own racquets once you commit an unforced error or lose a friendly match against your coach!