Joshua Speckman is a freelance journalist. A scientist by training and a tennis nut since childhood, he has a particular interest in the influence of technology on tennis. His January 2011 article in The Atlantic, “The New Physics of Tennis”, brought the impact of copoly strings on professional tennis to the attention of the general public and rekindled discussion about the topic in the tennis community. Joshua lives in Kunming, China with his wife, a photojournalist.
Joshua Speckman
Tennis Science
In the first article in this series on strings and spin, we learned that slippery strings, like copoly, generate extra spin because the main strings slide, stretch and snapback, applying an extra spin-boosting torque on the ball. (Click Here.) In...
Tennis Science
In Part I of this series, we showed how copoly strings really work and the role they've played in transforming the way pro tennis is played. (Click Here.) But forty years ago, a radical stringing invention used the same sliding/snapback...
Tennis Science
Since Gustavo Kuerten won the French Open in 1997 with the aid of Luxilon copoly strings, the material has gradually displaced traditional natural gut and other synthetic strings in nearly every racket on the ATP tour. The strings are essentially...