Racquet Playtest Comparison:
| About the play tester | About the racquets |
Name:NoBadMojo on the Talk Tennis Message Boards
Playing Level: 5.0+ and Veteran Teaching Pro
Regular racquet, string & tension: Volkl Tour10MP, BowBrand mains/Prince Synthetic Duraflex crosses, 60 pounds usually. Fischer Vibrastop. leather grips w. Wilson Pro overgrip.
Tell us about your game:
Aggressive all court almost exclusively on the dirt. One hand backhand. Mostly eastern forehand. Strengths are serve and volley and a variety of spins and angles, but no longer serve and volley.
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A word about each racquet - may save you from wading through all this . . .
Fischer Pro Tour FT - Typical Fischer solid, pinpoint control, and really good at everything. An impressive bat. All courters read on. This is a new version and appears to be a lot more than cosmetic changes.
Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 - Just ok at everything. Nothing outstanding for me at anything and kind of an unpleasant hit.
Babolat AeroPro Drive+ - Zowie! Makes the game a whole heck of a lot easier with some caveats.
The Fischer was strung far too tight for my game. They list the tension range as 50-70, and I think that is nutty. So at mid tension plus 2, that would make this racquet strung at 62lbs, which explains why I was hitting short in the court too much with this racquet. 70 pounds in this lower powered racquet would be brutal IMO. I think Fischer racquets (in general) play best at moderate tension. Also had trouble with this playtest in general because the AeroPro Drive+ generated so much easy power that I was having to make large adjustments between the 3 racquets. In advance, I expected to like the Fischer and I did, expected to like the Tecnifibre and didn't, and expected to not like the AeroPro Drive+ and liked it.
I chose to playtest these in the following manner with each racquet, and did the sequence twice. Crosscourt forehands, crosscourt backhands, off forehands, alley rally, volleys one up and one back. (crosscourt deep and crosscourt angled, up the line, drop volleys), volleys both up, overheads, serves and service returns, open court drill (play points with no serve up to 11), and 2, two games of 7/11 (server needs 11 to win the game and returner 7). Also my hitting partner hit with these racquets briefly so I could better tell what kind of ball the racquet hits (ie. is it heavy, power levels, how the spin reacts to the court, etc).
Power
Fischer Pro Tour FT - This is one of those make your own power racquets, but the maneuverability is excellent especially for a longer racquet. I could generate plenty of racquet head speed with this bat and hence good power. Hit's a nice heavy ball and is most powerful on the serve, you could carve volleys through the court, load up service returns given the time, and it has decent but not great put a way power on short balls. I am guessing a bit at the power because of the tension issue.
Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 - Low powered. Nothing much to say here. Seems most powerful on the serve and groundstrokes. It is a demanding racquet from a power standpoint, especially compared to the AeroPro Drive+. The least powerful of the three.
Babolat AeroPro + - Power a plenty, almost completely controllable except if you're technique breaks down or you hit late, in which case I produced some pretty wild misses. This racquet, to me, needs someone who has good spin control. It's very easy to swing fast and you need that spin to harness the power. Got a short ball to hit? No problemo, just routinely put it away with this thing. Hitting a defensive shot deep in the court to stay in the point was very easy. Not the crazy serving power of the PD+ but I could certainly serve with power with this racquet.
Control
Fischer Pro Tour FT - In a word pinpoint. Precise on everything and I found myself quickly being confident with this racquet and willing to hit out more knowing the ball was going just where I wanted it to. Could pinpoint the T when serving and also 'Y' serve really well, with lots of heat or spins. For me, the extra length doesn't produce more work on the serve, it gives me better angles. I could serve wide and short in both courts. Volleys are precise and groundstroke control was exceptional. Very predictable stringbed.
Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 - Unexpectedly not good in the control dept. for me. Directional control seemed fine and depth control was adequate, but I had a lot of trouble controlling the trajectory of my shots with this racquet from the backcourt. Seemed fine on the serve though, but surprisingly not what I expected from a 18mains control racquet.
Babolat AeroPro Drive + - Control for me was unexpectedly good, other than the occasional wild miss. I really never wildly miss anything. Had the least control at net, but volleys are much better than w. the PD+ in my opinion. Groundstrokes got away from me far less than serves or volleys did.
Maneuverability
Fischer Pro Tour FT - Very maneuverable for a longer racquet. This thing didn't get in my way on either service returns or volleys, and it was easy to swing fast on groundies. This racquet caused my strokes to feel longer and more fluid.
Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 - An easier to swing racquet, and perhaps just slightly headlight. Seemed to be more baseline oriented.
Babolat AeroPro + - Felt only slightly headlight but overall light and easy to move at net, on serves, and from the back, especially for a plus length racquet.
Stability
I'm referencing stability as sweetspot size and results on miss-hits
Fischer Pro Tour FT - Typically Fischer decent sized but not huge. This racquet is very headlight which should not be confused with instability. Balls hit outside of the sweetspot reasonably so, produced good results as did balls hit higher in the stringbed. Unlike the Pro1 which produces a boardy thud when miss-hit, this ones feels stiffer, but not as shocky, and produces better results than the Pro1
Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 - Adequate sweetspot size. Big drop off in results if sweetspot not struck cleanly.
Babolat AeroPro + - Very forgiving and easy to hit. Miss-hits were rare for me, tended to have the opposite problem of the stringbed being too hot.
Comfort
Fischer Pro Tour FT - The sweet soft Fischer feel within the sweetspot and as described above when not. Typical Fischer smallish grip and pretty much void of a butt cap.
Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 - In warm up felt very smooth hitting and the feel of this racquet said 'Prestige' to me because it had that combo firm but soft feel. When playing games this thing is a harsh hit, and the stiffness seemed more ceramic like. It feels pretty firm in the sweetspot, but glasslike brittle when miss-hit even slightly. Shots hit high in the hoop were pretty jarring. The Texalium seems to be a harsh material. Grip shape was standard sized and neutrally shaped, and I found the red grip to be a bit annoying so I covered that up pretty quickly with an overgrip.
Babolat AeroPro + - Surprisingly comfortable given it must be a stiff racquet. It really felt solid but with more of the feel of plastic than graphite. If you really go for a ball, there is a resounding crack from this racquet, solid, but as described above. Grip shape is standard and sized perhaps slightly larger than standard. Really liked the standard grip that comes with this racquet, it's smooth with no perforations. I don't think a person would have injury issues unless strung w. something stiff or over the top tight. This is one of those racquets where you have to decide if you want something with great feel or something that produces great results. It didn't feel great for me and the design was kind of Jetson's like. I didn't have great touch, but I produced good and easy results with it. It was a less harsh hit than the Tecnifibre racquet, which I found surprising.
Spin
Comments:
Fischer Pro Tour FT - Easy to create spin off both wings or flatten the ball out with this one. Loopy groundies or less loopy were easily produced, and this racquet seemed to excel at sliced backhands and getting a lot of jump on the serve.
Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 - A little more penetrating less loopy trajectory given a normal swing and what you would expect from a 18mains racquet. The stringbed didn't look that dense though, and I could still get enough top off both wings.
Babolat AeroPro + - Easy spin with this one. Rapidly dipping groundstrokes were easy if that is what you wish for even with an eastern grip. The ball really took hold of the court, not in a heavy sort of a way, but more in a jump up sort of way. To me the key to this racquet is to hit it really hard with a lot of spin.
FOOTNOTES:
Fischer Pro Tour FT - Suggest this as an all courters racquet, although it hits a nice heavy ball from the back. Typically Fischer, it will support whatever you have to give, has a very predictable stringbed , but isn't going to artificially enhance any one aspect of your game. If you want a slightly longer easy to swing make your own power soft feeling racquet and you are a good ball striker, this is a really nice racquet
Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 - I tried to like this racquet because it seemed to spec just as I normally like, but am having trouble finding things I liked about this racquet. It was just an average racquet for me in all respects, and it wasn't fun to get the harsh hit.
Babolat AeroPro + - I can see why players use stuff like this with the way the game is now. Anything for more spin and power, and the pros are obviously good enough to control all of this. Think quite a few of these will show up on tour and out in mainstream tennis land.
| Comfort |
| Fischer Pro Tour FT | 80 |
| Babolat AeroPro + | 75 |
| Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 | 50 |
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| Control |
| Fischer Pro Tour FT | 95 |
| Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 | 75 |
| Babolat AeroPro + | 70 |
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| Groundstrokes |
| Babolat AeroPro + | 95 |
| Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 | 80 |
| Fischer Pro Tour FT | 75 |
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| Maneuverability |
| Fischer Pro Tour FT | 85 |
| Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 | 75 |
| Babolat AeroPro + | 75 |
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| Power |
| Babolat AeroPro + | 90 |
| Fischer Pro Tour FT | 75 |
| Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 | 75 |
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| Serves and Overheads |
| Fischer Pro Tour FT | 90 |
| Babolat AeroPro + | 85 |
| Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 | 80 |
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| Serve Returns |
| Fischer Pro Tour FT | 85 |
| Babolat AeroPro + | 80 |
| Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 | 75 |
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| Slice |
| Fischer Pro Tour FT | 85 |
| Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 | 75 |
| Babolat AeroPro + | 75 |
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| Stability |
| Fischer Pro Tour FT | 80 |
| Babolat AeroPro + | 80 |
| Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 | 75 |
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| Topspin |
| Babolat AeroPro + | 95 |
| Fischer Pro Tour FT | 85 |
| Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 | 70 |
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| Touch/Feel |
| Fischer Pro Tour FT | 85 |
| Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 | 70 |
| Babolat AeroPro + | 60 |
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| Volleys |
| Fischer Pro Tour FT | 85 |
| Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 | 70 |
| Babolat AeroPro + | 70 |
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| Overall |
| Fischer Pro Tour FT | 85 |
| Babolat AeroPro + | 85 |
| Tecnifibre T-Fight 315 | 75 |
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| Playtest date: February, 2005. |
| All content copyright 2007 Tennis Warehouse. |