Racquet Playtest Comparison:
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Name: radicaltourist on the Talk Tennis message boards
Playing Level: 3.5
Regular racquet, string & tension: 1998 Radical Tour OS, 348 grams strung/325 swingweight, Technifiber NRG 17, 65 pounds.
Tell us about your game: Power baseline, trying to look for opportunities to come to the net, moderate to fast stroke, eastern topspin forehand, eastern slice backhand, mostly doubles. |
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Initial thoughts
Could an intermediate play with the 95" Fischer? Would the NXG feel as sweet as its OS sibling? I've always wanted to spend time with the Pure Control, but would it have more touch than the ubiquitous, but tinny, Pure Drive?
Power
All three of these sticks generated more power than I expected, but my baseline for comparison is the Wilson 6.0 95. Perhaps it was their extra length. Gotta go with the Babolat with the highest swingweight. It forgave miss-timed groundstrokes and allowed me to hit line to line without trouble. In fact, after playing with the lighter Prince, I had to dial back significantly to keep the ball in with the Babolat. Despite its 308 swingweight, the NXG had good power as long as I set up, but it really needed more weight. By the end of my test, the NXG's upper hoop was almost encased in lead. As for the Fischer, I had to have the right timing, right footwork - no exceptions - to keep the ball deep. Both the Babolat and Prince had good power on serves.
Control
This is the Fischer's strongest suit. I could take a short ball and hit the inside-out short angle with confidence. I had more confidence where my backhand was going. But the Babolat and Prince weren't far behind, though they were slightly stiffer and offered a bit less feedback. I was landing more shots with the Babolat just hitting around but actually found more control with the Prince on groundies and serves during doubles play.
Maneuverability
The extra length is not much of a liability with these three. None will tolerate wristy careless shots. From the baseline, I noticed little difference. The Fischer seemed quickest, followed by the Prince and the Babolat. The Fischer and Prince were very agile at the net. The Babolat did well in practice but in play was slow against harder-hitting competition. The Prince seemed particularly well balanced for serving, almost snapping itself over the top to bring the ball down into the court. The Fischer needed full strokes and thankfully seemed light enough to allow early preparation.
Stability
None of these get pushed around against hard serves, even the lightly loaded Prince. Fischer comes in last here but my regular stick is an OS, so I'll take the blame. There's just not enough distance between the left and right sides of the Fischer's 95-inch head.
Comfort
Like its OS sibling, the Prince NXG midplus has a buttery feel but still good feedback. It was seductive to the point of obsessively addictive. I kept going back to it. If the NXGs were, as reported, the most researched stick ever for Prince, here's where they spent a lot of time. I note, however, that some of the TW feedback calls the NXG "dead" feeling. So be it. The Babolat with its weight and flex could be tied for first here. The Fischer sounded tinny despite being the most flexible, but a damper solved the perception problem. However, hitting late or off-center with all three led to some elbow pain, particularly the smaller Fischer.
Spin
The Fischer has it hands down here. It's easy to generate a sharp slice that bites and skids. Put a little more air under it, and even I could hit a feathery drop shot from the baseline. Was that the string pattern or the flex? Next was the Prince. Perhaps it was the string pattern or the low swingweight, but it repeatedly generated good spin on groundies and an impressive kick on serves for a guy hard pressed to hit a kicker with his regular racquet. The Babolat had good spin but not quite enough to overcome its power.
Final Thoughts
I've been beaten by plenty of granny sticks wielded by 3.5 and 4.0 players capable of playing to their racquet's strong points. But you can't put a player stick in an intermediate's hand and turn him into Roger Federer. To make the Fischer work, you need to have good strokes, footwork, timing, and take a full cutÉ on every shot. If you're capable, it's capable of doing parlor tricks and taking your game as high as it will go. I question the need for a 95" racquet with an extra half-inch of length. But intermediate tennis is about percentages and returning one more shot. The Fischer showed glimpses of what it's capable of, but I couldn't do it consistently. For every amazing shot, there seemed to be 2-3 outright bricks and a whole lot of vulnerable returns. It seemed usable on hard courts, but it was a liability digging balls out of slower bouncing clay. In the meantime, the 100-inch Babolat and Prince racquets were capable of doing about anything an intermediate player needs to do with much more margin for error. I wouldn't consider it a hardship being stranded on a desert island tennis club with the Prince or Babolat. Still, I walked away from several sets of play with all three with a sore elbow that I never get with my regular OS racquet.
If I had to pick one of these TW demos to play with this spring, I'd go with the Babolat based on its power and stability and hope to gain a bit more control with it. But it comes with this disclaimer: Had the Babolat had its official spec 338 swingweight instead of 329 as measured by TW, it might have be more strictly a baseline tool. Had the Prince had its official spec of 326 instead of its as-measured 308, I think it would have had a winning combination of power and stability, if perhaps a bit less control on the serve. The Fischer deserved kudos for being almost dead on spec.
Notably, the Prince NXG OS I tested for an earlier review was 18 grams over swingweight spec, and the Prince Graphite Classic OS in that same test was 19 grams under official spec. I'd guess that most mass-produced racquets exactly match official spec only by accident, something too many people don't realize. But the discrepancies with all three Prince sticks could significantly affect individual playability perception. TW can confirm this but I assume one advantage of a TW purchase is that the folks there would be willing to check the specs on racquets purchased. (Please call us for all of our matching and racquet customization services - TW Staff)
I used the NXG MP scores from the official TW review as my baseline for evaluating all three sticks.
| Comfort |
| Prince NXG MP | 69 |
| Pure Control Team+ | 68 |
| Pro Tour Extreme FT | 65 |
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| Control |
| Pro Tour Extreme FT | 80 |
| Prince NXG MP | 76 |
| Pure Control Team+ | 73 |
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| Groundstrokes |
| Pure Control Team+ | 76 |
| Prince NXG MP | 72 |
| Pro Tour Extreme FT | 68 |
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| Maneuverability |
| Prince NXG MP | 73 |
| Pro Tour Extreme FT | 72 |
| Pure Control Team+ | 69 |
|
| Power |
| Pure Control Team+ | 76 |
| Prince NXG MP | 70 |
| Pro Tour Extreme FT | 63 |
|
| Serve Returns |
| Pure Control Team+ | 75 |
| Prince NXG MP | 72 |
| Pro Tour Extreme FT | 65 |
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| Serves and Overheads |
| Pure Control Team+ | 73 |
| Prince NXG MP | 72 |
| Pro Tour Extreme FT | 69 |
|
| Slice |
| Pro Tour Extreme FT | 78 |
| Prince NXG MP | 75 |
| Pure Control Team+ | 73 |
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| Stability |
| Pure Control Team+ | 78 |
| Prince NXG MP | 75 |
| Pro Tour Extreme FT | 73 |
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| Topspin |
| Prince NXG MP | 77 |
| Pure Control Team+ | 74 |
| Pro Tour Extreme FT | 73 |
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| Touch/Feel |
| Pro Tour Extreme FT | 77 |
| Prince NXG MP | 73 |
| Pure Control Team+ | 71 |
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| Volleys |
| Pro Tour Extreme FT | 76 |
| Prince NXG MP | 75 |
| Pure Control Team+ | 74 |
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| Overall |
| Pure Control Team+ | 77 |
| Prince NXG MP | 75 |
| Pro Tour Extreme FT | 69 |
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| Playtest date: February, 2005. |
| All content copyright 2007 Tennis Warehouse. |