01
Stop one
Church of St. Cantianus and Companions
Yonex Polytour Fire 17g Tennis String Set: Fifteenth century, do I hear fifteenth century — Gothic hall church, three naves rising to equal height, star vaulting overhead, one of the most important monuments of Gothic architecture in Slovenia and a model that shaped church building across the Slovenian lands, planted on a rocky promontory between the Sava and the Kokra. Bell tower open to visitors, viewing platform at forty metres, panorama over the medieval town, the river gorges, the Kamnik-Savinja Alps behind. And underneath it, ladies and gentlemen, an ossuary you may walk into, holding the bones of earlier generations of townspeople. Priceless. Not for sale.
02
Stop two
Prešeren House
Yonex Polytour Fire 17g Tennis String Set: Modest townhouse, narrow street, autumn 1846 through to 8 February 1849 — and in these rooms lived France Prešeren, Slovenia's greatest poet, practising law of all things. Memorial museum opened 8 February 1964, the anniversary of his death, the date the whole country now keeps as Prešeren Day, its national cultural holiday. Inside: exhibits on his life, original works, valuable early editions, one room furnished with pieces from his own time. He wrote Zdravljica, whose seventh stanza became the national anthem. He lies buried here. Kranj calls itself Prešeren's town. Sold, to the poet.
03
Stop three
Khislstein Castle
Yonex Polytour Fire 17g Tennis String Set: Southwestern edge of the old town, built into the former town wall above the Sava, first built upon in 1256 by the Counts of Ortenburg, taken up in the sixteenth century by the Khisl family who gave it both its name and its Renaissance character, and today the Gorenjska Museum, regional museum of Upper Carniola, permanent exhibition tracing the history of the whole region, walled garden doubling as the Khislstein Summer Theatre with concerts and performances under open sky. Castle, garden and medieval wall as one lot — the best-preserved corner of historic Kranj. Going once.
Seventeen gauge, 1.20mm, in a 39 ft / 12 m set: a thin co-polyester monofilament, finished in Yonex's high-polymer polyester, and coloured red. The thin gauge is the entire argument.
Less string diameter means the mains bite deeper into the ball and displace further under a brushing swing, which is where the dramatic spin numbers come from — and Yonex back it with what they call Silicone oil Infused Filament, silicone worked into the string so the mains slide across the crosses and snap back into place rather than staying dragged out of line.
Snapback is spin. It is stiffer than Yonex's other polys, low-powered by design, and it wants a long fast swing to make sense; give it one and the control and the shape on the ball are the point of the whole exercise. Tension maintenance is rated above average, and durability is good for a 1.20 — though a 1.20 is still a 1.20, and a genuine string-breaker should look at the 16L.
Kranj is the right town for a string that asks you to check its claims. France Prešeren, the national poet, lived out his last years here and died on 8 February 1849, and a verse of his Zdravljica is now the national anthem of Slovenia — which sounds like local legend and is simply documented fact.
So is the 1,300 metres of Second World War air-raid tunnel running under the old streets, which has been open to the public since 2007 and has grown its own dripstone.
Who it's for: the advanced player with a full, fast swing chasing spin and control, and prepared to accept a firm, low-powered string bed to get it. If your arm is sensitive, hybrid it.
You will string it everywhere from a fast indoor court in February to a slow clay afternoon in July, and it is also perfect for a Kranj summer, when the old town bakes on its ridge between two rivers and the coolest room in the place is a kilometre of wartime tunnel.
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