The Tennisnerd Guide to Racquets and Strings is supposed to help you learn more about gear and guide you on your way to the right racquet.
However, I felt like the credo of Tennisnerd has been to give as much free information as possible thanks to members (patrons), affiliates, and advertisers. Our goal is to be Your Guide to Tennis. To help you in the best way possible get information and entertainment about the sport we both love.
How important is finding a good racquet setup based on your game? It can be a game-changer. However, we always warn players of getting lost in the jungle of racquets and strings available to consumers. When you keep switching gear, your level of play might be harmed and frustration will set in.
If you’re interested in tennis racquets for kids (or strings and balls), check out our racquets for kids post.
What the right racquet and string can do for your game
A more optimal racquet setup can help you play better tennis and help you focus on the fundamentals of the game, such as the competition, technique, strategy, and footwork. Feeling confident about your racquet setup will help you relax and focus on playing tennis.
Many players fall into the rabbit hole of testing racquets repeatedly in search of the perfect frame. I’m sad to announce that there is no perfect frame with everything you look for, but if you find something that’s good, that you enjoy playing with, and that helps your strengths or diminishes your weaknesses, then you’d be wise to stick to that racquet.
I hope you enjoy the content inside and that your tennis benefits from it. I also offer individual consultations if you want more personal help. You can also ask questions on our Racquet advice page. We will reply there or create YouTube videos with our reply, so make sure to subscribe to Instagram and YouTube.
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How to choose a racquet
The process of choosing a racquet is not entirely straightforward. Especially not these days with an abundance of racquets and strings on the market. However, the good news is that most racquets are of good quality. This makes the quest more about what finding what works for you, than finding what is a good racquet. They are pretty much all good as long as you go for a main brand and main model.
There are a number of questions you need to ask yourself before you choose a racquet. You see them under the “Looking in the mirror”-section. Having a good idea of yourself as a player is essential – warts and all. Brutal honesty is useful and one way to get it is to record yourself playing. This is a great way to spot strengths and weaknesses in your game and work on any technical flaws. Yes, if you can get a good coach, that is ideal, but you can do some work on your game by yourself as well.
You also need to ask yourself what you dislike about your current racquet? Is it a lack of power or control? Does it feel harsh on your arm? Many things can be improved by changing strings and tension. You can also customize the racquet to have more power and stability, for example. It is usually wise to try tweaking your current racquet before you give up on it.
You will most likely not want to stay too far away from your current racquet in terms of racquet specifications (see the section below). The reason is that you are used to your racquet (muscle memory) and going for a drastic change might be very difficult to adjust to. This of course depends on what you want to change. If you want a much lighter or heavier racquet, then you need to demo that first to see if it can work for you.
There are multiple categories of tennis racquets to consider. Most players should look into the weight range of 285-305 grams unstrung. If you are a beginner, young junior or veteran player, you can go lighter, but overall this is the most common range. If you are an intermediate to advanced player (3.5-5.0 NTRP – you can see tennis levels in different countries here) you will most likely be happy with a 300 gram, 100 sq inch or 305 gram and 98 sq inch unstrung racquet. These are most standard models. 305 works more for advanced players, while 300 and 100 sq inch racquets has wide range.
Racquets are obviously highly personal. You might not want to go for “conventional” wisdom or what your coach tells you. I think that is fine as long as you enjoy your tennis and the racquet does not hurt your in any way.
Racquet categories
There are many different types to consider when choosing a tennis racquet. We write about this below under “Different types of racquets”, but will deal with it in short here.
If you are a player who plays with lots of spin, it might not necessarily mean a spin racquet is the way to go, you might want to get a more controlled racquet to control the trajectory and if you hit with lots of touch and feel, you might want to get a power racquet to help you get more free depth. The best idea is to demo and see.
Power racquets – Babolat Pure Drive, Yonex Ezone, Dunlop FX, HEAD Boom, Wilson Ultra, Tecnifibre TF-X1 (both power and spin)
Stiffer and thicker frames which will you give you free depth and power on your shots. These have lower shot trajectories than Spin racquets, which is another popular category today. Power racquets often come in 98 sq inch versions for you who want some power, but not all the way to the standard 100 sq inch versions. These racquets are stiffer so are not always ideal for players who struggle with arm issues (but you can adjust some of that with the right string and tension).
Spin racquets – Babolat Pure Aero, Yonex VCORE, Dunlop SX, HEAD Extreme, Wilson Shift
Medium stiff and thicker frames more focused on string movement and aerodynamic properties for players looking for higher launch angles and maximum spin potential. They are usually not quite as stiff as power racquets, but still produce lots of free depth and the shots tend to bounce high, which can be difficult for the opoonents to deal with.
Control racquets – Babolat Pure Strike, Yonex Percept, Dunlop CX, HEAD Radical, Wilson Blade
Lower stiffness, thinner frames, focused on dependability and precision. The player needs to produce the power, depth and spin using good footwork and technique. Demanding racquets for players that prefer to do more of the work. There are 100 sq inch, more forgiving and powerful control racquets these days like the Blade 100, Gravity MP, Percept 100, Strike 100, Dunlop CX 400 Tour…
The in-between – HEAD Speed (and you can put control 100 sq inch racquets like Dunlop CX 400 Tour, Babolat Pure Strike 100 16/20, Yonex Percept 100)
There are racquets that try to do balance all of the above. Control, spin and power in equal measures, kind of. Sounds like the perfect racquet? Well, it depends, they work for many but not everyone.
Others – Wilson Clash (comfort), HEAD Gravity (control), Prestige (control/precision), Pro Staff (control/precision),
There is no easy right and wrong here. You need to test a few different racquets in various scenarios and see what works for you. If you don’t like a racquet after 30 min of playing, it’s unlikely you will love it after a week. Usually you like the racquet straight away and with some tweaking and time you learn to love it.
Content overview
I have structured the content in a way that I hope makes sense. If not, I am keen to hear feedback if there is a better way of doing this.
