Head YouTek Three Star
Price: $180
Head size: 115 sq. in.
Length: 27 2/3-in.
Weight: 8.9 oz.
Swingweight: 301
Balance: 1 in. head heavy
Beam width: 26/28/28
Flexibility: Firm
Ideal swing: Short
NTRP: Beginner to low 3.0
The YouTek Three Star is a reversal of fortune that is solidly in the favor of lesser skilled players who begrudgingly shell out top dollar for power frames. With its enormous head sizes, extreme head-heavy balance and long length, the Three Star enters the marketplace going against that grain with a moderate suggested retail price of $180, some $50–$75 below most brands’ top-of-the-line power offerings. The difference is most of its competitors put their latest bells and whistles into frames of this category, while Head has opted instead to put its costly new technology—Control Rings—into the Three Star’s more advanced game-improvement siblings, the Five Star and Six Star. The racquet also has the traditional wrapped grip instead of the new slip-on grip of the Five and Six.
This isn’t to say the Three Star is bare-bones. It does sport Head’s YouTek technology, which gives players more power or feel depending on the shot. And it also has the new “Inner Quad Face,” a small indentation on the inside of the hoop at 10, 2, 4 and 8 o’clock on the face that slightly expands the comfortable hitting zone of its already gigantic head.
The racquet’s inherent power will give beginners and lower intermediates decent depth with a minimal backswing. The broad face and open string pattern encourage its users to try out backspins and drop shots. At net it’s amazingly maneuverable for a long frame with a head-heavy balance, so it’s a great option for one-up-one-back doubles.
The Three Star is the best game-improvement power racquet from Head since the TI.S6 of the late 1990s, which still has legions of devotees who scour eBay for replacements. They should consider the Three Star. It has a similar head size and weight, and it’s a little shorter and more maneuverable.
Even without all the latest technology, the Three Star’s combination of high performance and moderate cost should make it the sleeper hit of the season.