How to Find the Perfect Racquet for Your Game

Whether you’re a weekend warrior or a gung-ho tournament player, this blog post will help you identify racquets that will compliment your swing speed, skill set, and play style. We’ll point out some of the comfort features from reputable brands like Wilson, Babolat, Dunlop, Head, Tecnifibre, and Yonex, and encourage you to use our try before you buy, demo program, once you’ve narrowed down your choices.

Head Size: If you’re a beginner tennis player with an NTRP between 1.5-2.5, your primary focus should be on the racquet head size. Tennis racquet head size for beginner’s range between 100 and 115 square inches. This is the circumference of the hitting area of the strings. As a rule of thumb, the larger the head size, the greater the sweet spot, and the lower your margin of error will be. Also, a larger head size will help you make more consistent contact with the ball, hitting it over the net and inside the lines.

Racquet Weight: Beginner racquets are lightweight. Depending on your past athletic experience, size, and hand-eye-coordination, you’ll want to choose a racquet between 9 and 10.5 ounce (unstrung). Racquets around 10 ounces typically have an even weight distribution between the head and the handle (head-heavy or head-light). This balance helps determine the racquet’s power versus control.

Material: Graphite racquets are more stable and durable than fiberglass or composite racquets. Although there’s a nominal price difference, the performance value is significant. Graphic racquets have more forgiveness, thus reducing player frustration.

Length & Other Specs: The most common racquet length for adult beginners is 27 inches. Other factors such as a racquet's stiffness, flexibility, or string pattern come into play, but we’ll discuss that more at the intermediate and advanced levels.

Great Beginner Racquets:

• Babolat Boost Aero Yellow (Prestrung)
• Head IG Boom Xceed (Prestrung)
• Wilson Six One 2025 (Prestrung)

Great Deals on Beginner Racquets:

• Dunlop CX Team 265 (Prestrung)
• Volkl Team Speed (Prestrung)
• Tecnifibre T-Fit Power 280 (Prestrung)

Head Size: Now that you’ve mastered the basics (NTRP 2.5-4.0), you’re ready to graduate to an intermediate tennis racquet. You’ll want to consider a head size between 97 and 102. This will depend on your consistency and whether you’re looking to add more power or more control to your game.

Racquet Weight: An ideal weight for intermediate players is between 10.4 and 10.8 ounces. A lighter racquet will help you generate more power. A heavier racquet will help you with control. Likewise, the frame's thickness will lend more stability so that whether you’re hitting a lob, forehand volley, or down the line winner, you have the tools to execute the shot.

Strings: Intermediate tennis players tend to hit the ball harder, thus breaking more strings. Although not all beginner racquets can't be restrung, the majority of intermediate racquets can be customized by simply swapping out the strings. These adjustments can add power, control, or spin depending on the strings material, tension, thickness or gauge.

Other Tips: Players struggling with arm pain or tennis elbow should consider upgrading to a more flexible racquet. Less stiffness means stress off the arm and elbow. Nowadays, racquet manufactures are adding special technology to curtail injuries and help lessen hitting errors. Players who break strings often, should look at racquets with a denser string pattern.

Great Intermediate Racquets:

• Yonex EZONE 115 Gen8
• Wilson Clash 100 Pro v3
• Babolat Pure Drive Gen11

Great Deals on Intermediate Racquets:

• Head Graphene 360+ Extreme MP
• Babolat Pure Strike 100 Gen4
• Yonex EZONE 100L (285G) 2022

A Fresh Advantage: Welcome to the elite category of advanced players (NTRP 4.5+)! By now you already have a strong sense of what you like and dislike based on the previous racquets you’ve played with. So now the question is: what will separate your game from your opponent and give you a fresh advantage? Are you looking for more power to dominate the points? How about more control so that you can play with a plan, and set up your shot?

Advanced players should utilize Midwest Racquet Sports demo program where you can try different head sizes, weights, balances, and string patterns, not to mention different brands. Try not to let brand loyalty and product familiarity hold you back from discovering newer, innovative tennis racquets with technical features to take your game to the pro-level.