Demoing racquets

Hey Everyone,

Hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Over the Christmas holiday I demoed some racquets, I'm about a 4.5 (I say about because it's hard to practice in the snow);) and I was looking for a racquet that would help take my game to the next level. I decided to demo the Head Microgel Radical Pro, the Babolat AeroPro Drive Cortex, and the Wilson K-Factor KSix-One Tour 90.












If you are a Federer fan, you might recognize his racquet in the ones that I demoed. As a Federer fan myself, I was very curious to see what the racquet was like so I decided to demo it, merely out of curiosity and I'm very pleased that I did. Fed's racquet was unbelievable at the net, it was very light weight and when I swung it, it felt more like a wand than a racquet. I was able to get a nice pop on the ball and it really enhanced my slice. It was also a great racquet for flat hitting. All in all, it's a great racquet, although it's not for everyone. The Wilson K-Factor KSix-One Tour 90 is best suited for advanced players who really know what they're doing. I also wouldn't recommend it if your playing style is topspin oriented (like mine is.) This racquet requires practice and flat strokes, preferably some net skills as well.

After playing with the Wilson I decided to try out the Babolat. The first thing that I noticed about the Babolat AeroPro was how light it felt. The head size was fairly large for a mid plus and it had a more flexible feel than the Wilson. The Babolat racquet was more like what I'm used to and that's probably why I enjoyed it so much. It's probably the best racquet that I've ever hit with for generating topspin. It was nice at the net although not exceptional. The power level was good and I didn't have any trouble with short returns. This is a good racquet and is worth a try, although like the Wilson, your ability to use the racquet will depend on your game.

The third and final racquet was the Head Microgel Pro. Since I started tennis, I have played with Head almost exclusively but this racquet was nothing like the other head racquets that I own. In fact the Babolat AeroPro felt more familiar than this one did. Unlike the other two racquets the Microgel felt heavy and the round frame took some time to adjust to. However, this was by far the best of the racquets from the baseline. I was able to hit deep penetrating flat shots as well as awesome topspin returns. The racquet blended the control and power perfectly together and added a nice bite to my slice. It's going to take some work but I decided that this is the racquet for me. In my opinion it was the most versatile of the three racquets, it was good from all over the court and wasn't limited to topspin or flat shots (which is perfect for me because I have a flat backhand and a topspin forehand.) This was by far the racquet that I enjoyed the most.