By Jon Levey
Whats old is new. Whether it’s clothing or tennis racquets, certain styles are destined to return. Take the Prince Graphite, a classic frame for advanced players. It’s been five years since the company has released a new model of the stick, but this season brings the Prince EXO3 Graphite. It’s been updated with O Ports and Prince’s new Energy Channel, but it still has the classic feel and black-and-green graphics. Then there’s the Adidas Barricade. The shoe giant once made frames that were swung by Ivan Lendl and Ilie Nastase, and the Barricade is the company’s first racquet in almost two decades.
Other popular racquets, like the Dunlop 2Hundred, Head Extreme and Prince O3 Red, got makeovers to enhance playability and make them better at producing dependable power. Still, if you’d rather try something you’ve never seen before, the Babolat Y 112, Dunlop 4D 3Hundred Tour and Wilson [K]obra Team.FX are all new.
These racquets, along with the rest of the frames reviewed here, run the gamut of ability levels from the discerning advanced player to the novice. If you’re in the market for a frame, you’ve never had it so good. Whether you need a racquet with little power and pinpoint control, or want something that’s easy to swing and will give your shots more pop, you’ll find what you’re looking for in this guide.
SWINGWEIGHT
In addition to the regular racquet specifications we provide in our reviews, we’ve included swingweight in this year’s guide. Swingweight is essentially the measurement of how heavy a racquet feels when you swing it. An extremely maneuverable racquet measures around 270, and a frame that’s exceptionally challenging to swing is in the vicinity of 350. The numbers provided in the reviews were supplied by the racquet manufacturers.
HOW WE TEST
Manufacturers sent TENNIS six blacked-out samples of every model, laced up with the company’s recommended string. Black frames are used so reviewers aren’t influenced by a racquet’s cosmetics. The racquets were distributed to 11 testing sites: Racquet World in Miami; Racquet Koop in New Haven, Conn.; Georgia Professional Tennis Association in Atlanta; Midtown Tennis Clubs in Chicago and Overland Park, Kan.; Meadow Creek Tennis & Fitness Club in Lakewood, Colo.; Tennisport in Long Island City, N.Y.; Ray’s Tennis Shop in San Diego; Swetka’s Tennis Shop in Mountain View, Calif.; Do It Tennis in Oceanside, Calif; and Courtside Racquet Club in Lebanon, N.J., where TENNIS’ racquet adviser, Bruce Levine, is the general manager. Consultants at each location offered their expert assessments while also having playtesters of various levels rate each racquet. Reviewers were asked to rate the frames in several categories including power, control, comfort and stability. They graded each racquet on a scale of 1 (poor) to 10 (outstanding) and gave an overall appraisal of its benefits and deficiencies. You’ll see some of their comments in the reviews that follow.
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