Wilson Pro Staff 95S Racquet Review

Groundstrokes - Score: 80

Our playtesters found the Pro Staff 95S to be extremely soft and comfortable, as well as maneuverable, which allowed them to maximize their spin potential. However, it was a bit under-powered for them, too. Chris felt that a little more heft would give the racquet the added boost in power and stability that it needs to really make it a weapon. He said, "I liked this racquet from the baseline. It offered great spin and lots of feel. I felt very dialed in to where my shots were going. Judging depth was very easy. However, I felt the racquet was a tad down on power. I hit this racquet side by side against the Six.One 95S because they both appeal to me. Whereas the Six.One 95S gets the ball away to my targets with lots of zip, with this one I felt like I was waiting for the racquet to catch up. It just wasn't as snappy or responsive, and I wasn't hitting as big a ball with this one. This racquet would benefit from some weight to bring the swingweight up a bit -- say to the 325 range. On the plus side, the feel is softer and plusher, so it wins on the touch front."

Mike enjoyed the control and spin, but like Chris, he wanted a bit more power. He offered, "I found this racquet to have tons of control on both wings, but it was very low powered. The racquet was very dampened and allowed me to be very consistent, but power was an issue. I don't hit the ball too hard and rely more on my defensive skills to keep me in the point, so I like a racquet that can offer me a little more power than control. This one just allowed me to place and use spin on the ball (lots of it with the open 16x15 string pattern)."

The racquet has many of the attributes Karly normally likes, but she wished for a crisper, more solid response. She said, "For me, if there's an adjustment period with a racquet it's usually because of a high power level or lack of maneuverability, but it was just about the complete opposite with the Pro Staff 95S. The racquet offered great control and was extremely fast and easy to swing. It's very quick, whippy and control-oriented, which are qualities I like, but I needed a little more time to get used to the feel of it. The 95S felt so soft and had such a dampened feel to it that the ball seemed to stay on the racquet much longer than usual. I'm not saying that's a bad thing because that's what makes it an arm-friendly racquet, but I personally like a stiffer frame for a more crisp, solid feel on my shots. The feel was just too muted for my taste, and I felt my shots weren't as lively."

On the contrary, Mark felt totally dialed in with the familiar open stringbed. He explained, "So far I have preferred the 16x15 patterns to the 18x16s, so I was excited to see what I could get out of the brand new Pro Staff 95S. It felt like I was already at home with it because I do play mostly with the Steam 99S. With Luxilon 4G in the Pro Staff 95S I was in control of the direction, level of spin and pace on my groundstrokes."

Volleys - Score: 87

While it resulted in mixed emotions from the baseline, the maneuverability and buttery soft feel of the Pro Staff 95S helped our testers excel at the net. Mike raved, "I would have to say this is one of my favorite racquets at net. It's very solid and maneuverable. Although it has a 95 square inch headsize, the 16x15 string pattern allowed me to control the ball and hit the occasional drop shot, which I normally struggle with. The best part was how solid the racquet felt, which may be due to the 11.6 oz weight. Even on off-center volleys, I could place the ball in a decent spot to keep me on offense."

Chris also appreciated the soft feel and precision. He said, "My favorite part of the playtest was volleying with this racquet. I loved the feel and control I got on my volleys. Hitting touch shots was lots of fun. I could get a ton of spin on the ball to help me increase the angle or drop a volley short. The plush feel had me completely dialed in to where my volleys were going. Lots of fun!"

Mark felt he had to spend a little extra effort to keep the racquet stable at contact, but for the most part he was really enjoying it at net, too. He said, "I loved it for the volley, but I had to anticipate the contact of the volley on my strings with a firmer wrist than usual. Maneuverability was top notch for any volley scenario, and although it is a lighter player's racquet, there was no unwanted vibration, even with a full set of a poly."

Like Chris, Karly's favorite shot during the playtest was the volley. She offered, "I was eager to rush the net to volley the point out. This normally isn't the case, but I preferred hitting volleys so much more than groundstrokes. The easy maneuverability shone through again, and the dampened feel really helped with the touch. With volleys I got a great feel for the ball. It was easy to take pace off the ball and drop a ball short, but I also felt like I got a little more pop and power at net. The only thing I had to be careful about was the smaller headsize. The racquet had a smaller sweetspot and wasn't very forgiving outside of it. It was unstable and my shots felt dead if I didn't hit in the sweetspot. Even with the lack of forgiveness, the Pro Staff 95S performed best for me on volleys."

Serves - Score: 79

Our playtesters enjoyed the racquet on serve, but once again, they wanted a little easier access to power. Karly really enjoyed the control and maneuverability of the Pro Staff 95S, but she still found it unforgiving. She said, "I've been playing with a lot of 100 square inch racquets lately and didn't realize how much more I like serving with smaller headsize racquets, especially ones with good maneuverability like this Pro Staff. The control was there with the 95 square inch head, and it was so easy to add variety to my serves with different placement and spin. I didn't have to put much effort into swinging hard for a powerful first serve or a second serve with a lot of kick. However, like my volleys, I had to be careful with the small sweetspot. I knew as soon as I hit my serve whether I hit the ball in the center of the racquet. If I missed the sweetspot then the hit felt dead and my serve lost quite a bit of pace."

Mike shared a similar opinion, saying, "The easy access to spin and precision was awesome, but generating pace was again an issue for me. I had to really hit the ball to get an ace, which I don't mind, but it made me use more energy. Hitting the lines and wide serves were a breeze with this stick, making it easy to get in position to serve and volley and get some free points."

Like he felt at the baseline, Chris found himself wanting a little heftier feel for more pace, but he did enjoy the racquet more than he expected to while serving. He said, "I served well with this racquet. I usually like a much heavier stick to serve with, but with this one I was serving better than I was with the Pro Staff 90, something I did not expect going into the test. Again, spin was very easy to generate. I felt like I could pull my opponents off the court with my wide slice serve to the deuce court very well with this racquet. I was getting decent pace because it was easy to accelerate the racquet through the ball. I fully expect I could serve with more pace and power by adding some weight to boost the racquet's plow through. However, in stock form this one felt surprisingly good."

Mark had trouble hitting effective serves. He explained, "This was one area that the Pro Staff 95S did not shine as brightly for me, and this was the result of me just preferring heavier set-ups on serve. Overall, the serve was effective, but I felt like most of my serves were coming back into play. I could set points up on serve, but I could not finish them with that one shot."

Returns - Score: 82

The fast, maneuverable feel of the Pro Staff 95S continued to impress our playtesters when returning serve. The racquet worked well for Mark, and it allowed him to access his full array of returns. He said, "I really liked the weight and balance on my return. It was stable enough to complement my chip return but light enough for me to swing through the service return as well."

Chris also found the lightweight specs to work well for him on returns. He offered, "Just as on volleys, I found this racquet to work well on returns. It was easy to react quickly with it, and I felt I could swing the racquet through contact quickly. Touch and feel were impressive, and that added some confidence to backhand slice returns. Again, I wasn't hitting as big a ball with this one as I can with my Six.One 95S. I could still take a good crack at most serves, but I just wasn't ripping the ball with as much pace and action."

Like the others, Karly appreciated how easy it was to swing the Pro Staff 95S, but it just wasn't as forgiving as she would have liked. She offered, "It's always a relief when hitting with a racquet that's easy to maneuver, especially when returning serves. Making sure I can bring the racquet around in time is one less thing I have to worry about with the Wilson Pro Staff 95S. The frame was fast and easy to swing, and as long as I hit the ball in the sweetspot I got a good combination of power and control. Like other areas of the court, it was unforgiving outside the sweetspot, and I didn't get much power or pop off my shots if I hit outside of it. However, when I made good contact this racquet made hitting returns really easy."

Echoing the others' sentiments was Mike, who said, "Returns were pretty good. It was hard to really get after the ball and take the offensive right from the beginning, but I really enjoyed returning against a big server. If someone hit a huge serve at me the racquet did a good job of absorbing the shock and using my opponent's pace to return the ball. This was a solid racquet for returning serve."

Overall - Score: 83