Laserfibre Native Tour is one of the newest co-poly strings on the market. Laserfibre has been around for a long time, but is now under new ownership. With this new ownership, comes new products and Native Tour is one of their flagship tennis strings!
A little background on Laserfibre Native Tour tennis string; according to the Laserfibre website, Native Tour is the first co-poly ever made in the USA. That’s actually pretty neat. If you don’t know, nearly all of the tennis strings are made in China or Germany, by the same factory. Of course, many brands (Babolat, Luxilon, etc.) have proprietary composites and formulas for each string. Laserfibre not only engineers its tennis string in the USA, and creates them in a factory in the USA, it also has them packaged in the USA. So this is a true “American Made” product.
Laserfibre Native Tour Review: Stringing
I’ve strung thousands of tennis racquets, there are some tennis strings that are easier to install than others. Some tennis strings are a bit challenging to get to go in smoothly and without premature notching or damage of the intersecting string. Laserfibre Native Tour was actually a very very easy tennis string to install! The string coating is very slick, so weaving was a dream. There was very little elasticity in the string, so I didn’t experience any sort of overstretching when pulling tension.
I opted for a little bit higher tension on my first go around; I put in Native Tour at 50lbs (22.5kg). I was told that this string offers a solid combination of power, feel, and comfort. So to curb a little bit of the power and manage ball depth, I went with a higher tension.
Everything seemed to be just fine when installing Native Tour, crosses weaved nicely, strings were all straight, and the knots tied nicely.
Laserfibre Native Tour Review: On Court Review
On my first trip out to the tennis courts with this string for testing, I was not entirely sure how I liked it. The strings are firm, though at the same time, offer a lot of feel. I certainly didn’t feel any sort of the firmness in my arm (which tends to be sensitive when playing in cooler weather), though ball response was crisp.
Native Tour offered exactly what I was promised, power and feel. The power on this string was very very nice. Not overly powerful to the point of having to string it at a higher tension, but the nice power where you can go for your shots and know you hit a solid ball. Laserfibre’s string gave me all of the confidence I needed, especially on my forehand, to really go for my shots. The control was there, from the higher tension I went with, paired with the power I was overjoyed! I was easily able to move the ball around the court as I pleased, placing deep in the court and never having to feel like I had to hit the ball a million miles an hour. The strings did a lot of that work for me.
One of the shortcomings of Native Tour was the spin. I struggled early on with my range on my topspin forehands and backhands. I was a little surprised that spin was lacking, Native Tour is pretty smooth/slick so I expected the snapback (ya know, what creates spin) to be a little more forgiving. The strings moved a little but not as much as I had expected. Don’t get me wrong, Native Tour did deliver some spin, it just was not enough to really get me excited about spin potential.
Laserfibre Native Tour Review: Tension Stability & Durability
There’s nothing worse than having a tennis string that loses tension quickly. When tension goes down, you start losing control and playability (read about when to replace your tennis strings). Tennis becomes more frustrating and things just are all around bad. Fortunately, Laserfibre Native Tour really shines in the tension department! This string holds its tension better than most co-poly, poly, multi, and synthetic gut strings on the market.
I strung up my TenX Pro tennis racquet at 50lbs and played a solid 10 hours of tennis, over 2 weeks and I didn’t experience that tension drop that many many strings have. In fact, the tension was incredibly gradual, dropping a couple of pounds here, another there, and held up really great! When I got to the point that I was ready to cut them out, I was still able to play with control without incident. The tension held up really nice with Native Tour!
As I mentioned above, I cut out the strings. These strings work well together, there was minimal notching at the intersects and there was very little visible wear on the strings. I definitely felt that Native Tour could have played another several hours before breakage occurred. Yet another positive about this string!
Laserfibre Native Tour Review: Final Thoughts
Even with the lack of spin capability, Laserfibre Native Tour was an excellent offering. The crisp response at contact is a pleasure and the control is outstanding. I was mostly impressed with how well the tension held and didn’t drop off like many tennis strings. I would have hoped for a little more liveliness on spin production, the smoothness of the string should have allowed the mains to move easily against the crosses.
Laserfibre Native Tour would be an excellent choice for big hitters who are looking for a comfortable co-poly tennis string that wants more control in their game and a string that will last over many many hours of play.
Pick up a set of Laserfibre Native Tour at Tennis Warehouse!
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