How often should I restring my tennis racket?

One of the most common questions I get as a professional stringer is: "How often should I restring my tennis racket?"

This is a common yet somewhat subjective question. As with most things with tennis gear, it depends upon the player and the gear used.

If you play tennis just for fun and exercise, I'm inclined to suggest only restringing when the string breaks.  The dynamic tension will be low and the string may be worn, but having a competitive edge isn't very important if you are playing just for exercise.

For players who play competitive matches, I recommend restringing more often.

Players who use polyester based strings, like Babolat RPM Blast or Luxilon ALU Power, will need to restring more frequently as these strings will lose significant tension long before the string breaks.

I think most poly strings lose a large amount of dynamic tension after about 20 hours of playing, so that may be a good timeframe of when to think about restringing your poly strings.

If restringing that often is too costly, I would recommend restringing once a weather season, or about three to four times a year.

For players who use natural gut or multifilament strings, the strings themselves can show when it is about time to restring.

Fraying strings will show when the string is close to breaking. Once your string, particularly multifilament, starts to fray significantly, it is time to restring. 

Multifilament and especially natural gut strings hold their tension well, especially compared to polyester strings.

However, I would still recommend stringing several times a year, even if the string has not broken.

All string loses tension over time, and competitive players would be doing themselves a big favor by ensuring their racket has strings with fresh tension before their matches.