What’s the best tennis racquet?

I’ll be a bit brutal at the start here. If you’re anything like me, and you probably are, you have no business spending much time searching for the best tennis racquet. Now that that’s out in the open, and you’ve either left mad or are wondering who I think I am, we can begin.

I spent about fifteen years as a tennis teaching pro, and during that time was given the best racquets from Wilson, Head, Prince, Dunlop, and Babolat. Along the way, I had plenty of opportunities to try pretty much every racquet made, including a couple with handles for both hands.

There are two kinds of tennis players. One is the kind of player who plays in big tournaments and makes a lot of money winning them. The other kind is the rest of us. This second group encompasses everyone from beginners to great players who aren’t quite good enough for people to remember their names. And since there’s little chance that anyone from the first group will be looking for my expertise, I’m going to focus on the rest of us.

After a couple of decades of watching people hit, or try to hit, tennis balls, I’ve become an expert at helping people choose which tennis racquets to buy. Most of you are probably saying, “about time he got to the important stuff.” Sorry. I’ll provide solid answers, but learning from the stories is the only way you’ll end up making the best choices. And I’m mostly writing this to tell the stories.

There are racquets designed for players with short, slow swings, racquets designed for players with long, fast swings, and racquets designed for players somewhere in between. Players can change from short swings to long swings as they gain experience. If they play long enough, they’ll start going back the other direction as they become the crafty seniors who seem to keep winning at the club even after their maturity limits their athleticism. Just going from beginner to intermediate to advanced club levels, a player’s swing can change enough to warrant two or three racquet style changes in as many years. Some, like me, make exhaustive journeys of the racquet demo process.

Judy was my original tennis hero, mentor, teacher. She worked at a local Tacoma tennis shop. I was thirty-seven when I started playing, and she had probably been showing people the ropes, or strings, since before I was born. I chose her tennis shop for the comprehensive demo program. Judy would let me take two or three racquets to try for a week, then quiz me on what I thought of them. If I hadn’t found the perfect racquet yet, she would suggest a couple more to try for the next week. During one debriefing session, I displayed my growing expertise by explaining that one of the racquets I tried seemed to generate more power, while the other had much more control. Judy, with her always refreshing sense of perspective, said, “some racquets do generate more power than others. Control, alas, is up to you.

After three months of trying dozens of racquets, and Judy’s patience, I finally purchased the racquet she had suggested I buy in the first place. A few years later players began asking me what racquet they should buy. I had ethical obligations to recommend whatever brand I was being paid by a manufacturer to use, and focused on their swing speed and playing style to help them choose. Short, slow swings would benefit from thicker beams and larger string beds. Long, fast swings generated enough power that smaller string beds with thinner beams would help keep the racquet from launching the ball over the fence.

Competitive players at all levels want the best equipment. Competitive players who succeed want the equipment that will work best for their style and strengths. The players who win the club tournaments are usually not the ones with the most expensive popular brands of racquets and shoes. Humble tennis mortals like me are both entertained and encouraged when the guy who wins the tournament has rips in his shorts, chokes up on the handle of an old reliable racquet, and is wearing shoes that have clearly done some yard work. All he does is get the ball over the net and in the court one more time than his opponents.

Just because I say there are mainly four types of racquets, there are still sound reasons for a seemingly infinite number of available choices. Some of the reasons are mainly to sell more racquets, and since you’re not buying them from me, I’ll ignore those. Some subtle differences are relevant, technical, and boring for most of the population. If you want more technical information, please email me directly.

In a future post, I’ll dig into the most important differences between racquets in the same style ranges. And I’ll explain the biggest difference maker. So, until next time, if you have a short slow swing, choose a light racquet with a big head. If you have a long fast swing, look for a slightly heavier racquet with a smaller head.