Themed Cardio Tennis Clinics in the Fort Lauderdale Area
Not Marcus. Marcus does the string talk by the Cathedral with a mime and everyone says 'oh!' I'm just covering. But RPM Hurricane 16g, 1.30mm, co-poly, maximum spin grip — genuinely brilliant. St Albans deserves to know.
Babolat RPM Hurricane 16g Tennis String Set: I’m only the understudy guide, so forgive the competent pointing: St Albans Cathedral stands on the traditional site of the burial of St Alban, often called Britain’s first saint. The real guide would probably say that with more gravitas and fewer tennis strings.
Babolat RPM Hurricane 16g Tennis String Set: Filling in again, tragically, but I can confirm The Clock Tower was built in the early 1400s and is the only surviving medieval town belfry in England. Not bad for a substitute with a string set and no official hat.
Babolat RPM Hurricane 16g Tennis String Set: Your proper guide is presumably somewhere being charismatic, so I’ll just quietly mention that Verulamium Park covers part of the Roman city of Verulamium. There are Roman remains here, which is more staying power than my understudy contract.
Babolat RPM Hurricane 16g Tennis String Set: I’m merely the replacement guide, but even I know Sopwell Nunnery began as a medieval religious house, and the visible ruins are largely from Sir Richard Lee’s later Tudor mansion. Please hold your applause until the actual expert returns, if they dare.
Right, hello everyone, welcome, I'm — well, I'm not Marcus. Marcus does this normally. He's the one who really knows strings. He does this whole bit where he holds the string up to the light near the Cathedral and talks about tension loss and everyone nods and feels slightly wiser about tennis. I'm covering for him. He's got a thing. I don't know what thing.
He said 'a thing' and left, and I've been doing this for about four hours now and I think it's going quite well, actually. Not that I'd say that. I shouldn't say that. Marcus would say that. I'm just the understudy. So. Yes.
The Babolat RPM Hurricane 16g Tennis String Set.
Let me tell you about it in a way that is probably not as good as Marcus's way but is, arguably, more accurate.
This is a co-polyester string. Monofilament construction, which means it's one continuous strand rather than lots of strands braided together, which matters because it gives you a firmer, crisper bed, less movement, more control.
The gauge is 16g, which in millimetres sits at 1.30mm — right in that sweet spot between the thicker strings that last longer and the thinner strings that give you more feel and bite. If Marcus were here he'd probably gesture toward Verulamium Park right about now and make some metaphor about Roman roads and durability and everyone would laugh appreciatively.
A Roman road, maybe. If you like. That's fine.
I'm just going to tell you it's 1.30mm and ask you to picture something appropriately sturdy.
The RPM Hurricane is the heavier sibling in the RPM family — Hurricane, not Blast, not Team — and Babolat position it specifically for players who want maximum bite on the ball. The manufacturing process uses a thermofixing treatment, which shapes the string in a way that enhances its angular profile. That angular profile is the key thing here. It grabs the ball.
It grips it during contact and releases it with spin. If you are trying to generate heavy topspin, if you want that ball to dip, if you watch the pros on clay and think yes, I want some of that — this is the string that is genuinely trying to help you do that. Marcus would have said that better.
He has a spin demo he does near the Clock Tower where he tosses a ball up and mimes a forehand and someone in the group always says 'oh!' I can do the mime if you want. Nobody? Fine.
A standard set of RPM Hurricane is 12 metres — enough to string a standard full racket frame. It is not a reel. It is a set. One frame, one set. This matters because if you've come in thinking you're restringing four rackets for the price of one, I have to be the person who tells you that's not what this is. I'm sorry. Marcus delivers that news with real grace. I'm working on it.
Who is this string for? Advanced players, primarily. Players who generate their own pace, who swing through the ball rather than relying on the string to do their work for them. Because co-poly in general, and RPM Hurricane in particular, does not give much back. It is not a trampoline. It is a precise instrument.
If your game is built around flat hitting, or if you're still developing your swing, this string will feel dead and you will be unhappy and you'll come back and I will still be here because Marcus still has his thing. Intermediate players who are genuinely working on topspin mechanics and stringing at the right tension can absolutely benefit. But know what you're getting into.
I had a player last week — well, not last week, I've only been doing this for four hours, I mean in my life — who told me she'd done a Fort Lauderdale themed cardio tennis lesson and picked up this string at the event and didn't know what to do with it. She plays twice a week, she's building consistency, she was stringing it at 58lbs.
I told her: drop the tension, mid-50s, give it room to work, and focus on brushing up through the ball. She texted me later. Apparently it helped. I relayed this to Marcus. He said 'classic understudy moment' which I think was a compliment. I'm choosing to believe it was a compliment.
The Cathedral is visible from here if you stand at the right angle, and I know Marcus sometimes ends his strings talk there, does a whole thing about craftsmanship and centuries of tension bearing weight, cathedrals, strings, et cetera. I thought about doing that.
But I think the honest sell for RPM Hurricane is simpler than any of that: it is a serious string for serious spin, built precisely and priced for a single frame's worth of commitment. Try it. If you like it, tell Marcus. If you don't, also tell Marcus. He'll be back from his thing eventually. I'll still be here. I'm fine. This is fine.
