After reviewing Mayami Massive Spin, the second string I playtested from the Ukrainian model is Mayami Tour Hex. 

Mayami Tour Hex is a hexagonal polyester and sits within the lineup as their defacto management string.

Alongside Kateryna Bondarenko, it’s endorsed by former French Open finalist and one of some gamers with a profitable H2H file vs Roger Federer, Andrei Medvedev.

It is available in two gauges, 1.23mm and 1.28mm and is a really fashionable blue color that compliments particular racket paint jobs and courtroom surfaces very properly.

However improbable cosmetics and endorsements apart, how does Mayami Tour Hex play? Discover out on this full playtest and evaluate.

Mayami Tour Hex Specification

MAYAMI TOUR HEX is a Monofilament hexagonal polyester string that deserves distinctive empathy for gamers who must take their sport to a different propelled stage with a lot appreciation for the sport. Modestly intense, with phenomenal management and a improbable capability to pivot the ball, this string will allow you to information your strokes at an alarming tempo. That is really the world’s finest tennis string relating to value and high quality. Mayami’s Tour Hex Pitch

Thankfully, we do not price strings on their copywriting as this wants some work!

String Specs

Racket Setup for Testing

For this playtest, I used the Wilson Professional Workers 97 v13, which weighs 334g strung and is a headlight, management oriented racket. I used to be going to make use of the Blade 98, however I’ve nonetheless acquired Mayami Massive Spin in and do not need to reduce it out but 😁

Just like the Massive Spin, I used my transportable Mi Stringer for a two-piece string job, however this time, I used a stress of 48lbs (21.7kg).

Upon opening the packet, I used to be greeted with a really cool blue trying string. I uncoiled it, reduce it in two and commenced stringing the mains.

Immediately you may inform it’s a a lot stiffer string than Massive Spin, and it has a way more inflexible feeling when stringing. The mains are not any drawback, however the crosses are a bit harsher on the fingers when weaving.

Thankfully or sadly, relying on the way you have a look at it, the Mi Stringer design makes conventional weaving a lot more durable, so I exploit a few helper instruments they provide to get it executed and, on the identical time, saves my fingertips.

For stringers on the market, it is similar to most different stiffer polyesters, and for me, in case you just like the cosmetics/design of a string, it is typically ‘simpler’ to string with (at the very least in your rackets). Since I am a fan of the blue, I loved seeing the racket come collectively to get the completed article.

I additionally discover the Professional Workers 97 a little bit of a ache to string (Wilson’s official tie-off holes are completely different from the stringers digest, for instance), however a stiff poly could make some tighter grommets simpler.

Mayami Tour Hex Playtest

So how did Mayami Tour Hex carry out? Let’s have a look.

Preliminary Ideas and How It Felt

Just like the Mayami Massive Spin evaluate, my hit with Tour Hex was on a quick, slick indoor courtroom. Nonetheless, this time round, I used to be coming in off a number of extra hitting periods and knew what to anticipate from the floor.

I’ve used a number of hexagonal strings through the years, similar to Head Tour Lynx and MSV Focus HEX and all the opposite shapes in between, like Solinco Confidential (pentagonal) and Babolat RPM Blast (octagonal).

In case you learn my Massive Spin evaluate, my preconception of the way it appeared within the packet was that it might play just like RPM Blast, which turned out to be fully incorrect. 

With Tour Hex, my preconceived thought was that it might be just like Solinco Confidential. This time I used to be proper, and after 10 minutes of hitting, it gave me a really comparable feeling.

Solinco Confidential wants a little bit of a break-in interval earlier than it reaches what I would name optimum playability, and Mayami Tour Hex additionally performs it finest after quarter-hour or so of hitting. Nonetheless, it would not really feel as board like as Confidential from the outset.

I did my normal quick courtroom warm-up within the service field. Adopted by some cross-court service field hitting to get the toes shifting, I favored how the string behaved off the string mattress for ‘massaged’ sort management/really feel pictures.

How It Performed

As soon as the quick courtroom sport was over, I moved again to the baseline and rallied from the baseline with the objective of excessive web clearance and never making one another do an excessive amount of working.

From there, the tempo regularly elevated to hand-fed level play, the place you get a a lot better really feel of the string.

I’m not an enormous topspin participant, so I have a tendency to guage poly strings by how assured I really feel in my shot placement and the way the ball reacts from the stringbed. Not by how a lot web clearance I may give the ball and nonetheless see it land inside the baseline.

Tour Hex delivered simply the kind of feeling I used to be after and supplied a constant response from the stringbed, so that you get that feeling of predictability.

In that regard, it performs extra like a spherical polyester however with the good thing about that hexagonal form to impart spin (which has not been conclusively confirmed to take action, however there appears to be sufficient anecdotal proof from gamers that formed polys provide extra spin).

My backhand slice is a vital shot in my sport, and it is the shot I exploit to determine if I like a string rapidly. You get some strings the place the ball can balloon off, sitting up within the courtroom and others the place it produces a flatter, skimming trajectory ball that causes your opponent all kinds of issues.

Tour Hex delivers extra of the latter; the thinner 1.23mm offers a very good launch angle, so the ball lands deep within the courtroom, however there’s loads of management to get a wonderful form on the ball.

When hitting the forehand on the run, that’s the place I acquired a style of some spin potential. It produces a flatter trajectory spin when paired with the Professional Workers 97 v13, which has a grommet layup to slender the sample across the candy spot, and I believe Tour Hex is nicely suited to the management sort frames.

After returning to the courts for a second time, Tour Hex picked up the place it left off; it felt similar in traits and stored that predictable feeling throughout one other 90 minute hit.

My takeaway from hitting is that Tour Hex is a low powered string however has good pocketing, numerous management and a really predictable response permitting gamers to measure their pictures.

Sturdiness and Value

At $9.90 for a single packet or $109 for a 200m reel, Mayami Tour Hex provides glorious worth for cash. 

At simply $0.90 greater than Volkl Cyclone, which has all the time been one of many benchmarks for worth, you might be getting prime quality however extra snug, longer-lasting tennis string for an nearly similar value.

I’m not a string breaker, so I’ll hardly ever snap a polyester, however durability-wise, it appears similar to every other monofilament string. Critical gamers will get wherever from 12-15 hours of playtime earlier than plasticisation begins to set in, which is a few hours greater than a number of the rivals like Babolat RPM Blast and Solinco Confidential.

Tour Hex additionally has very spectacular stress upkeep, and it offers you a good interval of consistency with no actual change in the way it performs.

I examined it with the TennisTension app, and it holds stress very nicely; the drop off after my first 90-minute hit was solely ~1.5lbs decrease than the earlier measurement.

Strung at 48lbs as per the Mi Stringer, stress recorded at 46lbs after it got here off the machine, stress recorded at 42lbs earlier than enjoying, stress measured at 40.5lbs after 1 hours play.

I’ll do one other spherical of testing utilizing my MSV MiniSTT device once I string Mayami Tour Hex once more.

Who Is This String For?

Tour Hex is designed for high-level gamers that demand management. In case you swing quick sufficient and hit the ball large enough, this string is exactly what you’ll be in search of – management and spin.

For gamers who use a extra open string sample body like a Babolat Pure Aero or a Yonex VCORE 100, I would suggest utilizing the upper gauge 1.28mm model of Tour Hex, as you’ll get extra sturdiness and extra management.

Suppose you might be in search of a string that will help you out with energy. In that case, Tour Hex won’t be one thing that may provide it (though it’s one to think about placing in a hybrid with a softer string like a pure intestine, Head Velocity MLT or Tecnifibre Multifeel and so on.)

In order with all polyester strings, it isn’t fitted to youthful children or these simply beginning to play the sport.

Related Strings

Mayami Tour Hex is just like the next strings, and in case you like every of them, you may in all probability like Tour Hex too:

How does Tour Hex examine to different Mayami Strings?

Closing Ideas

Because the identify suggests, Mayami Tour Hex is suited to gamers that hit with a tour-level sport and has all of the properties that these competing at a high-level search for in a string.

Whereas it is debatable whether or not my sport can genuinely realise the advantages of polyester, I do worth a predictable string mattress that makes me really feel like I can land my sliced backhand on a sixpence, and Tour Hex provides that.

Total, I describe Tour Hex as a low powered, medium-stiff string that’s nonetheless snug, with above-average ball pocketing and above-average spin and management. A fairly good mixture, and I can see why this string has a number of constructive suggestions on StringForum.

Seen as if Solinco Confidential has been considered one of my favorite strings of the final 12 months, and Tour Hex mirrors it in each division. It will get prime marks from me.

I’m reluctant to say it is higher based mostly on simply a few hitting periods vs the 30+ I’ve had with a full mattress of Confidential, however they’re on a close to equal footing.

So at $3 cheaper per pack, in case you’re a aggressive participant in search of a playable poly, I would give Tour Hex a attempt, and also you would possibly end up sticking with it.

One different advantage of Mayami is like Angell Strings (which I plan to evaluate quickly); they provide a pattern pack with all their strings in so you may check all of them.

That is what I bought, so I’ve Magic Twist, Hepta Energy and Hit Professional to evaluate within the coming weeks. I am going to then choose a favorite and do an general comparability submit.

Professionals

Cons

Have you ever tried Mayami Tour Hex? What did you consider it? Let me know within the feedback.