Head to head

Prince Tournament Nylon 15L vs Wilson Red Alert 16

Tournament Nylon 15L leads on 4 of 6 measurements. The widest gap is ball bite, where Red Alert 16 is 24 percentile points ahead. Every figure is a testing-machine result at a fixed reference tension.

Measured, side by side

Prince

Tournament Nylon 15L

Nylon · 15L ga

Wilson

Red Alert 16

Nylon · 16 ga

Stiffness lower = softer, kinder on the arm
18754th pct
19158th pct
Tension loss lower = stays where you strung it
2017th pct
2017th pct
Energy return higher = livelier, more free power
9272nd pct
9381st pct
Spin potential higher = more spin off the string bed
3.111th pct
3.09th pct
Ball bite higher = grabs the ball harder
0.3615th pct
0.40929th pct
String friction lower = strings slide and snap back
0.11680th pct
0.13790th pct

Bars are percentile against all 791 strings, and the marked side is the one that measures better, which is not always the one you want. A firmer bed is worse for your elbow and better for your control, and no measurement knows which of those you came for.

Which one wins, by problem

Each string's standing on the site's rankings, out of every measured string in the database. This is where a comparison stops being arithmetic and starts being a decision.

Swapping between them: what tension?

Bed stiffness is published at one reference tension, so the only honest conversion is to scale it. These are starting points from 52 lb, not prescriptions. The calculator takes your own tension.

Coming from Tournament Nylon 15L at 52 lb

String Red Alert 16 at 48.3 lb 21.9 kg

Coming from Red Alert 16 at 52 lb

String Tournament Nylon 15L at 55.7 lb 25.3 kg

Hybrid: what if you used both?

Estimated, not measured. No hybrid combination has been tested as a bed. These figures are the two strings' own lab measurements weighted by how much of the bed each one actually is. Treat them as a guide to which way a pairing moves, never as lab data.

Tournament Nylon 15L mains / Red Alert 16 crosses

Stiffness55th pct · 1 measured
Tension loss17th pct · 1 measured
Energy return75th pct · 1 measured
Spin potential10th pct · 1 measured
Ball bite7th pct · 1 measured
String friction83rd pct · 1 measured

Red Alert 16 mains / Tournament Nylon 15L crosses

Stiffness57th pct · 1 measured
Tension loss17th pct · 1 measured
Energy return77th pct · 1 measured
Spin potential10th pct · 1 measured
Ball bite24th pct · 1 measured
String friction88th pct · 1 measured

Open this in the hybrid builder

Which goes dead first?

Estimated from tension loss, which is the only thing the database measures about ageing. This is when the bed stops playing the way you strung it, not when the string breaks.

Tournament Nylon 15L

~35 hours of play

Red Alert 16

~35 hours of play

Both strings in full

Every published measurement
StringGaugePriceStiff lb/inLoss %Power %SpinBite COFFriction COF
Prince Tournament Nylon 15L Nylon15Lfind18720923.10.3610.116
Wilson Red Alert 16 Nylon16find19120933.00.4090.137

Add a third string Tournament Nylon 15L in full Red Alert 16 in full