I’ve been conducting ongoing hybrid tests on my Prince Speedport Black Team. The incumbent is Babolat Pro Hurricane Tour 17 on the mains and NXT Tour 17 on the crosses @57. I tried ALU Power Rough on the mains and had to work a bit to get the tension right. Seemed like the best approach was to drop the tension on the mains as is widely recommended and string the crosses a few pounds higher than the mains (depending on how much tension loss you expect on the crosses). You will have to work a bit to get the right combination. Seemed to provide a bit more control, but I didn’t get quite the response I liked with the other combination. Interestingly, the ALU Power Rough did not seem to provide any more spin than the Pro Hurricane Tour.
My current combination is Pro Hurricane Tour 17 on the mains and xCel Power on the crosses. Upped the tension to 58 to see if 57-58 is really the upper bound. I hit extensively on the ball machine (indoors) on my recent Houston trip and at first the response was a bit flatter than my previous favorite. After 2-3 full rounds on the ball machine, I started to get the response I wanted. Get the tension right and this is looking to be a potent hybrid for this particular racquet. On restringing, I’m going to stick with 57 and it seems like it takes this hybrid a bit of ‘break in’ time, whereas I was ready to play with the Pro Hurricane Tour/NXT hybrid immediately after it came off the stringer.
The Algorithmist 