Babolat Pure Drive Tour Racquet Review

Groundstrokes - Score: 84

The Babolat Pure Drive Tour provided the TW playtesters with plenty of power and enough spin to help keep their shots in the court. Brittany has always been a fan of the standard Pure Drive. She stated, "In the past I thought the Pure Drive Tour was too much racquet for me. I was pleasantly surprised that the specs of this iteration fit in line with what I like. When I picked up the Pure Drive Tour I immediately felt at home. There was no adjustment period and I was instantly rewarded with easy power, depth and spin. To be honest, I found it to play very similarly to the standard Pure Drive. I loved how aggressive I could be, but I was impressed with the racquet when I was on the defensive. When I was out of position and reaching for a ball I was easily able to get the ball back deep in the court and get myself back into the point."

"Combine the extreme amounts of power and spin of the updated standard Pure Drive with some added control and you get a modern player's weapon in the form of this Pure Drive Tour," continued Hannah. "Attempting to reel in the power from the baseline with the standard updated Pure Drive was a massive task. Points consisted of two extremes. I would either dominate from the first strike or make unnecessary errors, usually past the baseline. When I picked up the Tour I felt confident in my ability to stay within the limits of my game while navigating the balance of power and control needed to successfully string points together and force opponents onto their heels. The increased weight, plow through and precision, compared to the standard version, lent a more productive use of the tremendous spin potential and heightened trajectory offered by the widened string pattern. Besides being easy to pick up and use, this racquet had the tools my game calls for in point situations. It felt great when I was looking to take time away from my opponent and control the middle of the court from a step or two inside of the baseline. Despite the added weight, I never felt the Pure Drive Tour was dragging through the air or too difficult to get in position. Considering the offensive ammunition this racquet offered I thought the maneuverability was above average. Even with a bit more control, this Pure Drive Tour is still one of the more powerful options on the market, and during points I was reminded that my game doesn't call for levels of power this high."

Jason noticed how easy it was to get pace from the baseline. He commented, "Hello, power! It was almost too easy to get power and depth on my groundstrokes with this racquet. The power was great when I was on the defensive because I could just stick my racquet out without any follow through and get the ball deep into the court. When I had time to set up and really connect on a shot I was hitting winners at a much more rapid pace. But it wasn't all positive. I found myself needing to dial back my forehand to get it in the court on a consistent basis. The power and the desire to see how hard I could hit a shot were almost addicting, which was not good for my game style. If I didn't put enough spin on my shot this racquet turned into a rocket launcher. I also noticed that I was hitting the ball late more often with this racquet."

Calling this racquet powerful would be an understatement for Sean. He offered, "With the 16x19 string pattern, thick beam and extra mass, the Pure Drive Tour is probably the most power-loaded racquet I've ever hit. This power worked like a double-edged-sword. On the one hand I had endless amounts of offensive potential and bailout shot-making capabilities. The power could also be really dangerous and tempting. It was difficult to slice the ball to get back in the court because there was nothing to bring the slice down. I had a really difficult time using my touch and working the ball accurately around the court. Overall, I had to completely change the way I approached the game to play with the Pure Drive Tour. If I didn't load the ball with spin it tended to fly on me. At times I had to go only about 80 percent on my normal stroke speed, otherwise I had no chance to keep the ball in."

Volleys - Score: 85

The extra weight of the Pure Drive Tour provided excellent stability, which allowed the playtesters to feel confident coming to the net to end the point. Sean was pleasantly surprised at how well the Pure Drive Tour performed at net. He praised, "As long as I softened my hands up the racquet did almost all of the work for me. Obviously, I was going to get enough punch through the court with this racquet, but the touch was actually better than I expected. The Pure Drive Tour was strangely able to deaden the ball on drop shots, which I really didn't expect but really enjoyed."

"The Pure Drive Tour was a breeze to use at net," raved Brittany. "I could get it into position and punch volleys back deep in the court. It was stable yet maneuverable, and I liked playing doubles with it. I wouldn't say this racquet had a ton of feel for soft touch shots, but that isn't a big part of my game so it didn't bother me."

Hannah found the stability and pop needed to end points at net, saying, "As with the regular version, the stability of this Pure Drive Tour was excellent at net. The racquet never wavered in my hands, and I was easily volleying past the service line and into the deep corners. I would also stick with my comments on the standard length version that it wasn't the most forgiving racquet in terms of touch. Nonetheless, I noticed I was extremely confident when hitting the transitional approach shots anywhere near the service line, and I was never worried about closing out points at net. I also really enjoyed the crisp feeling and pop I got on overheads."

Jason found the Pure Drive Tour to be very solid and stable at net. He said, "The high 11 oz weight was great in helping bleed pace off harder hit shots. What was not so great with this racquet were the quick volley exchanges and touch. I thought the racquet felt a little sluggish, and I was having an especially tough time getting it around to hit those shots coming right at my body."

Serves - Score: 86

The Pure Drive line is well known for its ability to bring the heat on serves. The Babolat Pure Drive Tour is no exception. Hannah compared the Tour version with the Pure Drive. She said, "My results on serves were true to the Pure Drive reputation. This was a great serving racquet, and when I got used to accelerating the extra weight of the Tour version up and over my head my flat, powerful serves felt effortless. Kick serves into the body resulted in free points and my go-to slice serve had dependable consistency under pressure. I'd say that acceleration and spin were easier to access on the standard version because of the slight change in specs, but the difference wasn't groundbreaking."

"I struggled a bit with consistency, but when I did get my serves in there was definitely some added pace to my shots," added Jason. "It was just tougher to get the racquet up and through contact for me. Still, access to spin was really good on both slice and kick serves."

Brittany had high expectations when it came to serving with the Pure Drive Tour. She said, "There is nothing like serving with a Pure Drive, and the Tour is no exception. It was just too much fun to blast flat first serves, and I was impressed when most of them went in. This gave me plenty of free points right off the bat. The spin potential was there on my second serve, which allowed me to kick the ball up and out of my opponent's strike zone."

Sean found his serve had more power and spin. He noted, "Big serves resulted in more free points and weak replies. This did come with a lower percentage of serves in, and I occasionally struggled to rein in the trajectory. I think that with more practice this racquet could prove to be a real weapon on serve."

Returns - Score: 80

While the extra power was welcome on serves, the TW playtesters were craving more control when it came time to return serves. Jason had to hold back on his returns to keep them in the court. He remarked, "When I was hitting groundstrokes I found that swinging at 80 percent of my max was the sweetspot between power and control. On returns, I felt like I had to dial it back to about 60 to 70 percent. Otherwise, I was tagging the back fence. I really had to focus on getting lots of topspin on my shots when I was going for a more aggressive return. If I was just blocking or chipping a return back I didn't have to worry about overhitting and just let the racquet do the work."

"My returns felt great when I happened to connect right, but since I had less time to take a full swing and generate topspin I often had a very difficult time getting the ball to do what I intended," explained Sean. "That being said, when the stars did align I had a lot of success pushing my opponent around with big and powerful returns thanks to the great stability and maneuverability."

Returning with this racquet was a little bit hot and cold for Hannah. She detailed, "If the ball was in my strike zone I could crank my return and get that first strike with no problems. Shots closer to my body were a little bit more difficult to place, and reaching for serves usually resulted in some overhitting. Making clean contact with the serve was crucial to start the point off either offensively or from a neutral position."

Brittany agreed with the other playtesters. She concluded, "This is probably the only time that I prefer a little less power. There were definitely a couple of times at the beginning when I was overhitting my returns deep past the baseline. I had to reel in my return and consciously add a little more spin than normal to keep my return in the court. Once that adjustment was made I was enjoying returning any serve that was hit at me."

Overall - Score: 84