Playability/Control:
This is a huge consideration for me. My game, especially when I am playing doubles, relys heavily on touch and feely shots. I was worried that the surprising stiffness of this string would hinder these shots. I was wrong. While not as good as Natural Gut or soft multi-filaments like Wilson NXT, it does perform well on soft shots. I was able to hit drop shots and short soft angles without hesitation. The strings also felt good on my slice backhand, which has an important part in my return of serve game.
Power:
For those of you who have visited Wilson’s website (www.wilson.com/newstring) you see that they advertise Hollow Core as “Ultimate Comfort, Control, and Power.” I did not find this string to be powerful. I strung my Babolat Pure Storm (98 sq. inches) at 63 pounds, which is a little on the tight side, but in comparison to other strings at the same tension, I did not notice any added power. I would rate the power level as average.
Spin Potential:
This was the aspect I was most curious about after I put the strings in my racquet. Since they measured so high on stiffness, I wondered if they would perform like a poly in this department. As it turns out, they do not. I did not feel like there was an increase in spin when I really whipped through the ball, like there is when I use Luxilon ALU Power for example. Like poly, there was very little to no movement of the strings during play. We will see if this continues as I play more with it. Ball fuzz does stick to the strings like it does with most non poly synthetics. For spin potential I felt they performed well, but not outstanding.
All in all I am pretty impressed with Wilson Hollow Core. It strung and performed completely different than I would have predicted by the technology. What I have found is that when Wilson rolls out a new product in this manner it is usually a good product. For them to be willing to send out free sets to dealers, and then offer up more free sets to customers makes me think they are pretty confident in the technology. I would not be surprised if they roll out some other types of Hollow Core (maybe Hollow Core Spin…) strings in the future. The only thing that would make me nervous about getting too attached to this string before it hits the market is that I imagine that with the manufacturing processes that this string goes through, it will be expensive.
My recommendation is that if you can get a free set from the website go for it! I also feel that it would perform well in a hybrid with a good polyester like Luxilon or Gamma Zo Tour. The added poly in the mains would help with the spin potential. I would also recommend trying it in the mains with a poly for added feel and touch.
There are still some things that we will have to see about this string… Durability and how well it holds tension. So far the tension has held very well. After 24 hours there has been very little tension creep to speak of.
To see how this string holds up, or to ask any questions, come by the Essential Tennis Forums and drop us a line in the Gear Review section. See you there!
