How Much Does It Cost To Restring a Tennis Racquet?

Play tennis long enough, and restringing becomes part of life. Whether a racquet loses tension or breaks a string altogether, restringing a racquet brings everything back to life.

This process does take time and costs money, so proper planning is necessary. With so many different ways to get a racquet restrung, it’s important to have an idea of how much it all ends up costing.

How much does it cost to restring a tennis racquet? The average total cost of restringing a racquet is 30$, but it can range from $20-$50. Costs are split between labor ($10-$30) and the string itself ($10-$20).

Breaking Down The Costs of Restringing a Racquet

RestringingPrice
Labor$10-$30
String$10-$20
Total Cost$20-$50

There’s no set price for restringing a tennis racquet, but most people will pay $10-$30 for the labor. The skill of the stringer, whether or not they work for a company or not, and location are all just some of the factors that play into the price. 

Additionally, there is the cost of string to go into the racquet itself. That’s usually $10-$20, making the total range anywhere from $20-$50 per racquet.

How do you know if you’re getting a good price? Take a look at this table to get a sense of what you should pay to restring your racquet.

Price LevelTotal Cost
Cheap Price$10-$20
Average Price$30-$40
Expensive$45+

With that said, keep in mind that cheaper isn’t always better. Most top-level stringers do charge more for a reason and the same goes for the cheap ones.

When Is It Time To Restring a Tennis Racquet?

The old rule of thumb has always been to restring your racquet as many times a year you play in a normal week. However, it’s more complicated than that. Here’s what you need to know.

LevelHow Often You Should Restring
BeginnerOnce a year
IntermediateOnce every 3 months
AdvancedOnce a month
ProEvery Match

As soon as the string breaks, it’s pretty obvious that the racquet needs restrung. However, some tennis players start to get to a point where they might need to restring their racquets before they break a string. Identifying when it makes the most sense will not only save money, but improve consistency.

Every string has its own issues that can start to pop up. For example, natural and synthetic gut both tend to start to fray before they break.

If there is a lot of fraying that is going on, it’s likely impacting the play of the racquet. Even though the strings are broken, the playability has dropped to another level that might impact a player’s performance.

Polyester strings don’t fray the same way, but there are still some signs that it may be restringing time. For example, polyester strings will start to notch if they lock in place and rub against each other.

This notching eventually leads to breaks, but a player might not want to wait that long. Polyester is also notorious for losing tension extremely quickly. After just a few hours of play, the tension can drop by 50% or more.

The casual player might not care that much to restring a tennis racquet until the strings break. At the higher levels, losing tension or having strings that aren’t 100% can put someone at a pretty big disadvantage.

Those who have the funds to replace strings a little more frequently will see better consistency with their game.

How Much Time Does It Take To Restring a Tennis Racquet?

Someone who has a lot of experience with stringing racquets can usually get one done in about 15 minutes. If they want to rush through things, it can be closer to 10 minutes. However, someone who is new to stringing could end up taking 45 minutes or an hour to get everything correct.

It’s important not to rush through restringing, especially when learning. There are too many opportunities to make costly errors that ruin the whole project. People restringing for a living usually have years of experience, so they can go at a much faster pace.

Do All Tennis Strings Cost The Same?

The majority of people who pay for someone to string their racquet is also paying for the string itself. String varies in cost depending on the quality of the string, as well as the material.

Natural gut is the most expensive, while multifilaments run pretty cheap. On average, most people are spending between $10 and $20 for a set of strings.

Strings do cost a little bit less if purchased in reels. A lot of professional stringers will work exclusively with reels to help keep costs down. Buying single sets of string ends up costing more money.

Is Restringing a Tennis Racquet Difficult To Learn?

Frustrated about the high prices for restringing a racquet? One way around having to pay the high cost every single time is to learn how to string by investing in a stringer. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but a lot of tennis players have decided to go in that direction.

The biggest upfront cost is the stringing machine itself. Machines are going to cost at least a couple hundred dollars on the low end, but they can be well over $1000 on the higher end. I listed my stringing machine recommendations in this post.

It takes a while to pay that back with all the labor saved, but frequent string breakers will love this convenience.

There are also plenty of other benefits to owning a stringing machine. A racquet can be restrung whenever a person once, which comes in handy if there is an important match coming up.

It also becomes much more justifiable to try out a new string and cut it out if it’s not something that feels good. When paying for labor every single time, it becomes very hard to try out anything new.

Keep in mind the string machines do take up a decent amount of space, so anyone living in an apartment might have a hard time setting one up. It’s worth it for those who have a family of tennis players, and there’s even an opportunity to make some side money if one wants to.

Keeping Up With Other Racquet Maintenance

Restringing a racquet is important, but so is other racquet maintenance. Whether it’s replacing grommets, bumpers, or grips, a stringer usually can do other work as well.

Grommets start to wear out after a person has a good amount of stringing done. They don’t need to be replaced all that often, but bring it up if it seems like a problem. The same goes for replacing the bumper on a racquet, as that protects the frame’s structure.

The grip of a racquet is built to last a long time. People can easily put their own overgrip on if they want an enhanced grip or even a little bit of size added. However, replacing a real grip is sometimes challenging. Leave it up to a pro to get it just right.

Stringers will be able to do all of this maintenance for a pretty low cost overall. Couple it with a standard stringing service, and some might even do it at no extra charge.

Why Quality Stringing Matters

Seasoned stringers usually do make a difference as far as getting everything set up correctly. Not only are they more efficient, but they get the little things right so that the racquet is in great shape and has the best chance to last a long time.

Stringers still learning might mess up, which means that the entire stringing setup needs to be redone. It’s frustrating to deal with any delays for people who play consistently. Quality stringing keeps players moving in the right direction and keeping up with their matches.

It’s part of that yearly budget any tennis player needs to keep in mind. Buying string and having it installed ends up costing much more than the initial cost of the racquet.

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