ProKennex Black Ace 315 Racquet Review

Groundstrokes - Score: 77

With its sub-60 RA, the Black Ace 315 offered tons of flex and a plush feel on contact, which catered to the preferences of some of our testers, while others felt it caused them to get a bit lost in the stringbed. Michelle typically prefers frames with a more direct response off the stringbed. She explained, "Despite the weight, head size and string pattern, this racquet really is outside my comfort zone based on the stiffness rating. It was so flexible — too flexible for my personal preferences. This has more to do with me than the racquet; it just didn't pair with how I hit and what I like to feel at impact. It had a very low-powered response. The ball would sit in the stringbed and then spit back out less predictably. It was as if the ball sank so far into the stringbed and then moved slightly as it shot back out. It is hard to put into words, but I had the sensation that I knew exactly where the ball was going when it entered the stringbed, but once it left, the response felt erratic and less predictable. The rest of the team was able to generate a bunch of spin, but that wasn't the case for me. I think I was so in my head about trying to juice out as much power as I could that I wouldn't allow myself to drop the racquet a bit more for spin generation. Instead, I tried to blast flat balls over and over. As someone who likes stiffer frames, this just wasn't my favorite racquet to drill with from the baseline."

Chris enjoyed the Black Ace 315's dampened feel and access to spin, but he found that the ball could float on him at times. He said, "The Black Ace 315 offered a very soft and forgiving feel from the baseline. It also felt like the ball was sitting on the strings longer thanks to the soft feel of the open string pattern and low frame stiffness of 56 RA. The result was a somewhat loopy response, which was great if I was putting a lot of spin on the ball, but had me losing some control on flat shots. When I did hit with spin I found the Black Ace 315 to be a very willing partner. I was able to get plenty of net clearance and still get the ball to drop inside the lines with lots of topspin. The same was true with slice. I could knife the ball and get the spin I needed to maintain control."

"It did not take long for me to enjoy exchanging groundstrokes with the 315-gram ProKennex Black Ace," added Mark. "It now features a 100-square-inch head size and an open 16x19 string pattern as opposed to the prior 98 paired with a tight 18x20 pattern. The open string pattern, slight increase in head size, 315-gram frame weight and substantial swingweight provided me with plenty of frame stability and power, plus unwavering comfort from the baseline. By the third hour of play, I was familiar enough with the new Black Ace 315 to consistently land my forehands and backhands within a foot of the baseline. The 16x19 pattern is uniformly wide, all the way to the sweetspot, so my topspin was effective. It was a bit more challenging for me to keep my backhand slice low over the net."

Volleys - Score: 77

Our playtesters found mixed results on their volleys. Although timing wasn't an issue, stability and feel were met with varied opinions. Chris continued to appreciate the racquet's soft feel at net, but he found it hard to read the ball off the stringbed at times. He said, "The Black Ace 315 felt super plush and comfortable at net. Stability was good, yet the racquet was head light enough to still feel fast in my hands. I did find my volleys flying on me at times. The exit angle out of the stringbed was pretty high, and I missed some angle volleys by hitting with more depth than expected."

Mark found ample stability and comfort on his volleys. He said, "If a racquet is a little light from the baseline, I can sort of hide that with more swing speed, but if a frame is unstable at all, at net is where it is most noticeable to me. That said, the average seven-points head-light balance and mid-320s swingweight made it easy for me to get this racquet into position on time without any stability issues at all. Ball contact outside of the sweetspot still resulted in good volleys and good comfort with this Black Ace update."

The flexible, soft feel of the Black Ace 315 on volleys simply wasn't a good match for Michelle. She said, "I was expecting this racquet to shine at net based on how soft it felt from the baseline, but instead, it was really soft and crumbled even when I was trying to hit with more touch. I played doubles with this racquet, and it took a set for me to realize I really had to intentionally go after the volley to be effective. So many times I was relying on the perfect drop ball, and it didn't even clear the net. Ironically, the harder I swung, the better this racquet performed for me. Unfortunately, the flexy nature translated into an unstable feel for me."

Serves - Score: 81

While the Black Ace 315 didn't provide a lot of free power on serves, the access to spin and the controlled response made for easy targeting and high serve percentages. Michelle described, "As I am sure you can imagine, this wasn't the most powerful racquet to serve with, and while I wasn't hitting my hardest serves, I did like the feel and precision here. I felt effective with my targeting, and it took the pressure off of hitting big first serves. I don't know if I got many free points, but I also noticed I wasn't double faulting or missing too many serves."

Utilizing the racquet's spin potential was key for Chris on serves. He said, "I had the most success adding some spin to my serves with the Black Ace 315. I liked the way the racquet felt through my swing, and I was getting a really nice mix of pace and spin. My slice serve had good bite, and I was able to get some nice kick on it."

Mark immediately noticed the movable mass in the Black Ace 315's frame when serving. ProKennex's Ionic Technology helped keep the racquet head stable and serves on target. He explained, "The more I served and hit groundstrokes with the new Black Ace 315, the more I noticed the Ionic Technology ProKennex applied to this racquet. Maybe I am having a senior moment on this one, or haven’t played enough with other ProKennex frames to get this effect, but I could swear that I felt the little silica beads pin themselves against the tip of the frame while aiming the tip of the Black Ace toward a target. This frame was easy for me to serve with; it was nothing spectacular in terms of speed, but the quality and consistency of my serves were great. In addition to the Ionic Technology, I did feel like targeting was improved."

Returns - Score: 77

The low-powered, stable nature of the Black Ace 315 really had a chance to shine on returns. Our playtesters could block back pace effectively or go big when given the window. Mark was able to use the return of serve to set up the point. He said, "I almost never hit a clean winner off a serve, but the 11.8-ounce strung weight, matched with the seven-points tip-light balance, definitely helped set up points that I could finish with other shots."

Returning serve is where the Black Ace 315 meshed the most with Michelle's game. She said, "Returns were probably the best part of my playtest. Because of the low-powered feel, I could absolutely rip balls, and they stayed in. Also, if I swung fast enough I felt like it stiffened up the feel a little bit for me. The other playtesters found so much spin potential, and I just did not find that, even off returns. I think it was because I tried to keep my hitting path pretty flat rather than drop under the ball and accelerate through, because in my head that shot wouldn't be as effective as driving through the ball."

"I continued to find a nice blend of maneuverability and stability from the Black Ace 315 when it came to returns," Chris added. "There was enough mass in the racquet to allow me to take the ball early with a compact swing and redirect my opponent's pace. When I had time to take a bigger swing or was returning from a deeper position, I found I could generate lots of topspin to help me loop my return back with depth or cut a short, sharp angle."

Overall - Score: 78