Racquet Playtest Comparison:
| About the play tester | About the racquets |
Name: Colpo
Playing Level: 4.0
Regular racquet, string & tension: While my regular frames are a pair of 2001 Babolat Pure Control mids (330 gm. stock), customized with 0.3 oz. of lead added to each rackethead and with each strung at 56 lbs. with Luxilon Monotec Zolo 16L, lately I've been tooling around with an old favorite, the Prince Graphite 110. The Graphites all weigh, with overgrips over leather but without lead or vibe dampeners, around 12.7-13 oz. strung. They swing lighter than their weight suggests, have excellent feel and play great, and I definitely notice how I'm more able to block back balls under pressure with a huge error margin thanks to the oversized head.
Tell us about your game: Playing tennis for about 24 years;
I'm an aggressive baseliner who likes to trawl on and inside the baseline;
I have long backswings off both sides, with a one-handed backhand;
I like to move in and hit out, and unfortunately will sometimes give away a point to my opponent by going for winners from the backcourt;
Dependable second serve with spin, so will use the harder/heavier first serve to set up forehand;
Semi-western forehand and continental backhand grips;
Generally hit with topspin off both sides, but can also incorporate flat and slice strokes; Prefer singles, but enjoy doubles particularly in league play;
Play mostly on clay.
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Impressions out-of-the-box
All three of these frames smoke in the looks and heft departments right out of the box. Also, they all feel heavier than their static weights not just on swings, but also when just holding them by the handle or throat.
The Pro Tour's colorway of neon yellow is striking on both a first and second glance. Unlike more traditional American brands, Fischer has always seemed to base its palette on its more aggressive ski equipment colorings. It's a sleek frame with superb heft and balance and a great rectangular grip shape (well, if you personally like it - some do while others don't).
The Wilson's cosmetics give a nice spin to the nCode's signature bright white and red by inserting prominent yellow-colored accents throughout, particularly inside the throat.
Last, I really liked the Pure Storm's metallic, hi-gloss paintjob. The use of a metallized orange throughout is a nifty take on the frame on which it's based, the Pure Control, which uses red in those areas. Can a yellow-accented Bab Control-derived frame be on the horizon?
Power
The Pure Storm was the most powerful of the bunch, which was probably not a surprise. It has a wide open racketface, a hefty swingweight compared to the other two, and plays with greater rigidity and twist-resistance
The other two models, the nPS and the Pro Tour, play more like control-oriented frames and did not distinguish themselves much in this category. This is somewhat of a surprise for the Fischer, which had the biggest headsize of the bunch. While the nPS had some decent pop in the sweetspot, it swings light and has a dense stringbed, undercutting much of any power attributes it might potentially have. The Fischer was the longest frame of the bunch, but played very head-light and this allowed for some vicious swingspeeds. On sweetspot-contact, the Fischer could generate exceptional pace. It plays as though there's little margin for error, with a smallish sweetspot. The Fischer would play best for a 4.0 and up, I think, despite what one might consider a more universal headsize than a 95 or 98.
Control
In an upset, I was most impressed with the Pro Tour in this category. Its balance and feel enhanced my ability to control the ball. It also seemed to play "small," as in closer to my hand and with a tighter geometry than the other two. An excellent ball control test is running groundstrokes up the line off of your partner's crosscourt shots, and the Pro Tour excelled here. Because I found the rackethead is so manipulable, imparting spin on drops and second serves was ideal.
I'd place the nPS a close second in this category because its tight, small geometry was also geared toward control. It was the ball control favorite going in, but I just found its relative lack of forgiveness and tight string pattern to not be all that user-friendly in this area. The nPS played very light in overall weight, so at times the racket felt as though it were flying on me a bit, particularly on long follow-throughs. The Pro Tour was more solid on blockbacks and half-volleys. The Babolat had pretty good control, frankly. This is a frame that's geared for backcourt battling, in my opinion, and seems to have been engineered on the notion that its typical user will be imparting enough spin to haul shots down and into the court. I'm still not crazy about Babolat's Woofer technology Ð I just feel it deadens string vibration to such a degree that control is affected, and this continued to be of minor concern for me when thinking about the Pure Storm.
Maneuverability
I found the Wilson nPS to be the most mobile at net and on serves. Its overall light weight component really came to the fore in this category, and for me it swung faster than its general-specs1 point head-light balance would suggest.
Surprisingly (or maybe not), the Fischer was second-best here, despite the fact that it's long and one would think it would play heavier than the Bab. Early preparation was key, but once that was down, the shaft feels as though it's doing all the work. The Pure Storm played a bit sluggishly for me here, and as with my own Pure Controls, I couldn't crank the pace up to "11" with this frame even though I found the racket to be relatively powerful. This rackethead, for a 98, plays pretty wide and just seems to catch a lot of air during the swingpath.
Stability
The Fischer Pro Tour was as stable as Clint Eastwood's future directing prospects. Bedrock-solid and stout on all shots, it's a challenging frame that demands early preparation and skill from its user. It was a real pleasure to make solid contact with this frame.
The Pure Storm was almost as good. It's got a broad, open throat and a thick kind of playability. It could be in my head, but I felt as though the Pure Storm's squared-off stalks that make up the throat really helped this frame "body up" against hard-hit balls, particularly on full-swing quasi-half-volleys from the baseline. The nPS, which played as the lightest, quickest frame of the group, did get pushed around on some reflex volleys and first-serve returns. Would be a nice frame to pimp with some lead in the throat and under the grip but then, Wilson probably already makes that frame under another nCode moniker.
Comfort
The Pure Storm offered ample comfort and its feel was downright plush on certain shots. Have you noticed this about Babs? - they're real quiet at times, too, as though the sound of impact fails to meet some minimum threshold somewhere.
The nPS was also "preferred" here, very easy to swing and with a slight but solid feel. Very well dampened. The Fischer was in a virtual dead-heat since I personally liked the Fischer's firmer feel. It enables the user to locate the ball contact point on the racketface, a useful attribute. The Fischer plays pretty rigidly, and I think that even a looser tension will still maintain some control. This is also very much true for the nPS. Contact with the Pro Tour's sweetspot did produce a satisfying response, but impacts off the top of the rackethead produced little pace and, for that matter, a nice mid-court meal for my hitting partner.
A word about the frames' weights here. Maybe It's just a by-product of getting older, but generally, the fact that these models all had sub-300 gm. unstrung weights didn't prove to be so big of a deal compared to what I usually swing. This observation was most true with the Bab and the Fischer, less so with the Wilson, which played as the lightest of the group. While prior play-testing is still a good idea, the advent of the lighter-frame-as-player's-racquet has most definitely arrived, and it no longer makes sense for many to just write off a frame based on weight alone.
Spin
The Pure Storm consistently produced the best spin responses, particularly baseline topspin from both sides, underspin backhands, drops and serves. All things being equal, its string pattern played as the most open of the group. As a gag, I mentally krazy-glued a full Western forehand grip on several consecutive balls and the racket responded quite well, producing the requisite deep, high balls I was looking for. Your arm might unscrew before this stick cries uncle.
The Wilson was capable in this category, but I had to be mindful to get some forward swing movement through the ball along with my topspin or the shot would have little weight to it. The nPS's tight pattern didn't seem to hinder its spin potential, because the head is light and a bit whippy. These features made it very easy to manipulate the head around and up the ball. The Pro Tour worked well here, but seemed to require more strength to consistently control the rackethead given the slighter longer length. It offered adequate spin on kick serves to the ad court, but I'd stick with the Pure Storm for consistent spin play at my level.
| Comfort |
| Babolat Pure Storm Team | 75 |
| Wilson nCode nPS 95 | 70 |
| Fischer Pro Tour Air Carbon | 70 |
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| Control |
| Fischer Pro Tour Air Carbon | 75 |
| Wilson nCode nPS 95 | 70 |
| Babolat Pure Storm Team | 70 |
|
| Groundstrokes |
| Babolat Pure Storm Team | 80 |
| Fischer Pro Tour Air Carbon | 75 |
| Wilson nCode nPS 95 | 70 |
|
| Maneuverability |
| Wilson nCode nPS 95 | 75 |
| Babolat Pure Storm Team | 70 |
| Fischer Pro Tour Air Carbon | 70 |
|
| Power |
| Babolat Pure Storm Team | 70 |
| Fischer Pro Tour Air Carbon | 70 |
| Wilson nCode nPS 95 | 60 |
|
| Serve Returns |
| Babolat Pure Storm Team | 80 |
| Fischer Pro Tour Air Carbon | 75 |
| Wilson nCode nPS 95 | 70 |
|
| Serves and Overheads |
| Wilson nCode nPS 95 | 75 |
| Fischer Pro Tour Air Carbon | 75 |
| Babolat Pure Storm Team | 70 |
|
| Slice |
| Babolat Pure Storm Team | 80 |
| Fischer Pro Tour Air Carbon | 75 |
| Wilson nCode nPS 95 | 70 |
|
| Stability |
| Babolat Pure Storm Team | 75 |
| Fischer Pro Tour Air Carbon | 70 |
| Wilson nCode nPS 95 | 65 |
|
| Topspin |
| Babolat Pure Storm Team | 80 |
| Fischer Pro Tour Air Carbon | 75 |
| Wilson nCode nPS 95 | 65 |
|
| Touch/Feel |
| Wilson nCode nPS 95 | 70 |
| Babolat Pure Storm Team | 70 |
| Fischer Pro Tour Air Carbon | 70 |
|
| Volleys |
| Wilson nCode nPS 95 | 80 |
| Fischer Pro Tour Air Carbon | 75 |
| Babolat Pure Storm Team | 70 |
|
| Overall |
| Babolat Pure Storm Team | 80 |
| Fischer Pro Tour Air Carbon | 75 |
| Wilson nCode nPS 95 | 70 |
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| Playtest date: April, 2005. |
| All content copyright 2007 Tennis Warehouse. |