How many people out there absolutely love Luxilon ALU Power, but would also love to pay about half the price? From the makers of the hugely popular Tournagrip, comes a line of strings called Big Hitter. Tourna has begun to make an appearance in the string market by creating some quality, German engineered products utilizing the same Aluminum filaments that make Luxilon ALU Power so popular. While Luxilon does keep a very tight lid on the exact copolymer formula for their strings, it is no secret that the addition of the aluminum has a drastic effect. To date, there is nothing out there exactly like it, but Tourna is responsible for bringing some solid offerings
to the market.

The first major string introduction is the Tourna Big Hitter, which comes in both Silver and Blue colors in 16 and 17 gauges. Intended to compete with the Luxilon ALU Power, Big Hitter brings a much lower price tag. The aluminum fibers and the poly-poly ether composition combine to give a softer feel and more playability compared to the typical polyester string. To give an idea of how well this string has been received, it received top rankings in durability and resistance to movement from the USRSA. It also rates in the top 5 for spin and tension maintenance, so the string will play up to its high expectations for longer. For the players that want even more spin, Tourna brings Big Hitter Rough, available in a blue color, in both 16 and 17 gauges. Instead of simply texturing the surface like Luxilon does for their ALU Power Rough, Tourna instead completely redesigned the manufacturing process for their textured version. The aluminum fibers and the poly-poly ether composition remain unchanged, but the string is extruded through a different, octagonal dye compared to the standard circular dye. After extrusion, the octagonal string is then significantly twisted. This creates an effective texture to the string to increase ball bite and spin generation. The Rough will play just slightly stiffer than the original thanks to the alternate manufacturing process. Polyester of course is not right for everyone, and even for those that prefer to use it in hybrid form, Tourna brings their new Quasi-Gut, which comes in a natural color and both 16 and 17 gauges. This string is a solid multifilament offering for players with arm problems, players seeking additional power, and also players wanting a string to soften the stiffness of polyester in a hybrid application. The construction of this string is slightly modified from the typical multifilament for increased durability and longer tension maintenance. The string is made using a larger fairly typical multifilament core bonded by a thermo-elastic polyurethane resin for comfort. It is then coated, and a separate outerwrap layer is added for increased tension maintenance. The outermost coating is designed to lessen friction between strings for increased durability. Overall the string plays soft, making it great for putting in the crosses with polyester in the mains. From the look of these strings, with the most expensive product around the $9 price point, it should be obvious why these highly rated strings are getting some attention. While Luxilon and Babolat are still the leaders in the polyester string market, Tourna Big Hitter should be interesting to try out for those wanting a more economical alternative. The German engineered strings are popular with reviewers over at the USRSA, so one would think that Tourna is doing something right.