At the Tennis Tribe, we believe transparency is crucial to earning and maintaining your trust. You deserve to know exactly how we get paid, and our process for testing, researching, and reviewing tennis gear.
How We Review & Rate Tennis Racquets
In our tennis gear reviews, we recommend dozens of different racquets from a variety of brands. We have spent hundreds of hours testing, researching, and reviewing the racquets on this website. We do this through a combination of reading the manufacturer’s website, other online reviews, and actually testing the products on the tennis court.
Through our partnership with Tennis Warehouse, we demo racquets at no cost, so we are able to play-test all the racquets they offer. More on play-testing below.
We review the following criteria for each tennis racquet:
- Racquet Specifications: Head Size, Length, Weight, Balance, Flex Rating, String Pattern
- These specs help us categorize racquets and give us an idea of how they might perform on the court. They improve our recommendations by giving us data to compare racquets.
- On-Court Performance: When we test a racquet, we have certain expectations based on other reviews and the specifications above. However, we play-test each racquet for at least one full hour hitting session.
- We review each racquet on power, control, spin, comfort, stability, maneuverability, and feel.
- We also rate each racquet on the serve, return, groundstrokes, and volleys.
Our Tennis Racquet Rating System
Our individual racquet reviews use a rating system to help you choose the right type of racquet for your tennis game. Using the criteria and processes below, we rate racquets based on these 8 categories.
- Power: Rated from 1-10, this is a measurement of how effectively all the racquet’s properties combine to hit the ball with the greatest velocity.
- Control: Rated from 1-10, this is a measurement of how effectively all the racquet’s properties combine to hit the ball where you want on command.
- Spin: Rated from 1-10, this is a measurement of how effectively all the racquet’s properties combine to impart spin, including topspin and slice, on the ball on command.
- Serve: Rated from 1-10, this is a measurement of how effectively all the racquet’s properties combine to enhance power, control, and spin while serving.
- Return: Rated from 1-10, this is a measurement of how effectively all the racquet’s properties combine to enhance power, control, and spin while returning.
- Groundstrokes: Rated from 1-10, this is a measurement of how effectively all the racquet’s properties combine to enhance power, control, and spin while hitting groundstrokes.
- Volleys: Rated from 1-10, this is a measurement of how effectively all the racquet’s properties combine to enhance power, control, and spin while hitting volleys.
- *Price: Rated from $-$$$, this is a measurement of the cost of a racquet. Racquets that cost less than $120 are rated $, between $121 and $199 are $$, and greater than $200 are $$$.
*Racquet prices are subject to change and the most recent prices may not be reflected in our price ratings.
Do you test every tennis racquet?
We have tested all of the intermediate tennis racquets and advanced tennis racquets. We’ve also tested all tennis racquets from the following brands.
- Wilson tennis racquets
- Head tennis racquets
- Babolat tennis racquets
- Yonex tennis racquets
- Prince tennis racquets
- Diadem tennis racquets
The beginner tennis racquets on this site have been tested by other players with whom I’ve consulted. Because I (Will Boucek) am an experienced NTRP 5.0 player, it doesn’t make sense for me to test beginner tennis racquets myself. Instead, I choose from trusted tennis brands and use the opinions of real beginners to help in my reviews.
How We Review Strings, Shoes, & Other Tennis Gear
For other tennis gear, we are able to test nearly every product you see on the site. In most cases, we purchase the products at a discounted rate from our partners at Tennis Warehouse. On some occasions, we do receive free gear, but that does not affect how we rate the product. We are always honest in our reviews, listing both pros and cons or drawbacks of each product.
In the case of shoes for tennis, we have tested all the men’s tennis shoes. We have another NTRP 5.0 player who tests all the women’s tennis shoes.
For tennis strings, we purchase each string before reviewing it. We play test the string for at least 3 full matches and rate the string on its power, control, spin, feel, and durability.
We have also play-tested all of the tennis balls, tennis overgrips, and tennis socks on this website.
When we review tennis bags and other gear, we do not always test the gear in person. For example, we have tested most, but not all of the tennis ball hoppers.
Have questions about our reviews? Contact us.