I know what you’re thinking, Tier One Tour Status is a tennis string? You have probably never heard of them, though I promise that you should keep them on your tennis radar. I was fortunate enough to get a couple of Tier One Tour Status string samples to review, boy am I glad that I did.
Tier One Tour Status 17 tennis string review
As you can imagine, I was a little skeptical of playtesting a virtually unknown brand such as Tier One. In any event, I went ahead and installed the Tier One Tour Status 17 in my tennis racquet at 48 pounds of tension across the board. I was impressed at how easy it was to string this co-polyester. The string, although slightly stiff, weaved easily and I was able to finish a nice string-job quickly without fuss. The shape of the Tier One Tour Status string is similar to that of many tennis strings currently on the market that promote spin enhancement.
Tier One Tour Status 17 playtest
When I got to the courts to do my tennis string review, I was immediately impressed by the soft feel of the string. The Tier One Tour Status did not have that “firm” feel off the stringbed, to the contrary, the string felt very crisp and solid all the way through ball impact! I was still a bit of a skeptic with the string, I didn’t know what to expect; perhaps the strings would feel terrible after an hour, or they would break quickly. I’m sure it was only going to be a short amount of time that the Tier One Tour Status would show it’s ugly side.
Tier One proved me wrong, very wrong. I really enjoyed this string, a lot. It was crisp, forgiving, and powerful. The power I was able to produce on my forehand and backhand was incredible. I did not have to swing any different to get that nice pop off my groundstrokes. In fact, I felt like I was putting more on the ball with the Tier One Tour Status than I have with many of the big brand names.
The spin I was getting from the Tour Status was not amazing, though it was enough to get the job done. I did notice that after about 2 hours of hitting, the edges of the shape wore down to a smooth, rounded, surface. When I swung with a heavy western forehand, to get additional spin, the bite I got on the ball was very nice. Unlike many current co-polys, the Tier One Tour Status did not hurt my arm. No matter how hard I would swing at the ball, the strings felt soft at impact, there was very little string vibration, a nice characteristic.
When hitting placement shots, the Tier One Tour Status excelled. I could guide the ball where I wanted easily. Moving the ball in any direction was effortless, even with a 16×19 string pattern tennis racquet. I really enjoyed hitting down the line when hitting a running forehand. At net I was, again, impressed with placement volleys; I was able to easily put away heavy passes with easy and hitting a nice drop volley was very nice (I should mention that I’m not the best volleyer on the planet).
I got about 5.5 hours of nice play from the Tier One Tour Status 17 before the strings (mostly the mains) started moving around and snapped. I was a little sad that the string broke, I was enjoying it greatly.
Final thoughts on Tier One Tour Status 17 strings
The Tour Status is a very nice offering from Tier One, it is really a hidden gem in the vast world of tennis strings. Though the spin production was not extraordinary, the power and comfort I found with this string heavily outweighed the lack of spin. I very much felt confident with this string, I knew that I could hit a powerful shot in any direction or take a bit off and place the ball anywhere I needed on the tennis court. The Tier One Tour Status is a must try for an advanced player looking for a solid string that has a lot to offer and is, more importantly, easy on the wallet!
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