Early Adopters and the Slow Spread
Kuerten was not the only player experimenting with the material that week in Paris. His semifinal opponent, Filip Dewulf, was also stringing with Luxilon, and within a few years American players including James Blake had adopted it as well, drawn by the same combination of control at lower tension and the extra topspin that let a full swing clear the net safely. Longtime professional stringer Nate Ferguson, who has strung racquets at every Grand Slam and Masters Series event through Priority One Tennis, has pointed to that stretch around 2000 as the moment polyester genuinely changed how the sport's best players hit the ball, rather than a one-tournament curiosity.
