Hi everyone, I’ve never used Yonex before, want to give it a try. But can’t decide between 100 or 100L.

Which racket is better for a female 2.5-3.0 player? What are the major differences between these two?

Thank you 😊

I got an unexpected chance to try the Defyer 98 Pro today. For context, I’m a 55 year-old NTRP 5.0 and I currently play with a Head Radical MP strung with MSV Hex Soft 17 gauge at 50lbs. I have had ligament tears in both elbows in the last 6 years so since then I have tried to find an arm friendly setup.

The demo was strung with ALU Power, which I’ve never used before, at 50lbs, so I’m uncertain how much of what I felt was string vs frame.

Initial thoughts on picking up the Defyer is that the weighting and balance felt fantastic. I also thought that the butt of the grip was too wide but I didn’t notice that when hitting. At first I loved it - it felt very solid, the ball seemed to jump off the strings more powerfully than I’m used to but did not fly out of control. As I started playing points and hitting on the move I noticed that off center ball strikes didn’t feel good. The sound and feel was bad and I felt like there was arm impact that I’m not used to (I’m admittedly paranoid about that so it could just me being oversensitive to it.). My ball striking is much better on my backhand than on my forehand and the racket made a noticeable difference on how powerful and penetrating my backhands were. My off center forehands felt like record scratches but well struck forehands had increased spin and depth and felt great. My overall takeaway is that it will be a great racket for very consistent ball strikers, and I that I might not fit into that category enough to sacrifice the forgiveness of my current racket. I look forward to trying the 100. I also am interested to hear others thoughts on the racket and string setups.

I have two fairly new pure aero 98’s 2026 from babolat and i’m looking to trade for the 2023 or 2019 additions. Let me know what you guys think about this please! (reference photo is from when they arrived- i have played with them and strung them twice each)

My current set up: 2021 Babolat pure drive. 100 sq inch. 300g. All stock. Strung with poly pro tour 51-53lbs.

I’ve been using pure drives for nearly 20 years.

Me: I’m 34YO now and currently rated 9UTR at doubles at 10UTR at singles. I stopped playing singles 4 years ago in open tournaments… I’ve however got the bug. Oops.

So I’ve played a little recently and been playing ok beat a couple 11UTRs and a 12UTR. I feel like i could be getting more from my rackets, everyone at the tournament I played seems to be using an aero 98, vcore 98 or ezone 98/100.

I’ve tried the two yonex bats at the ezone felt like a plusher pure drive while the vcore seemed to launch the thing with so much height. I felt like I got more but missed more… will I find the court more with it if I persist? Anything else I should look at?

I’m a baseliner that comes forward a bit but not loads, hit with decent RPMs on the forehand.

Advice on rackets welcome. I’ve been on PDs since I was 13 or 14 and haven’t tried much else.

Played everyday for the last month, now need to help to see improvement. 6 months into tennis and my forehand has hit a roadblock. Any advice is helpful, finding myself missing many in the net. TIA!!!!

Hi, I don't really know how the ranking system works. I'm not even sure if this is enough for someone to be able to tell. But I'd like for proficient players to tell me if they can draw a vague estimation perhaps. For reference, although this was while just hitting, I'd call this one of my better rallies if it were to occur in a game.

I've played sporadically for about 2.5-3 years now, with maybe 4 months of coaching (1 session per week).

I have been playing for about 2-3 months now. I have a friend who’s been helping me and we play consistently with a small group probably 3+ times a week. I am 9 months post op from a knee injury(so this was a slowww start into tennis) and there is a ‘timer’ for how often/how long I can play, although it has gotten better.
Anyways- Does anyone have any advice for absolute beginners? I have a Wilson racket I found for free and been relying on youtube videos.
What’s worth the money in the beginning? I can serve probably 1 good one out of every 20 tries, any advice on getting more consistent? Also, any advice for anyone playing with bad knees on what helps them with recovery after tennis?

After almost a year of being fearmongered by the internet and avoiding the Pure Aero 98 2023, I finally said YOLO and got one on sale for around $230, since it was quickly running out of stock everywhere and I always wanted to play with it (in my country racket demoing is not a thing).

HOLY CRAP do I wish I had gotten it sooner, it feels like my shots now come out exactly as I imagined them, and I cannot understand how everyone says it "destroys your arm" or "ruins your wrist", I felt no pain at all after 2h of hitting.

Took a tumble while playing the other day and scraped my racket pretty badly. It's now scuffed like this all around the frame. I think it's just cosmetic damage, don't see any cracks or anything.

Is there anything that can be done about this or does my racket just have some battle scars now?

Long story short, I don't attract many people on or below my level to play with consistently every week.

I can put my level at 4.0 and play mixed doubles and beat half of the club.

However, with men's singles, I can put my level at 1.0 and be sandbagged by a "beginner" who has years experience and is just coming back to tennis and hits like fucking train.

Anyway, it's annoying because I can't find a match where I'm not losing 6-4 6-1.

Like, I want to play someone I can beat 6-4 too for fun.

Point is I feel shit always playing this guy with no hope and feel like I'm just getting worse but he keeps showing up to the lowest rated stuff.

I'm struggling to see if it is actually useful to me at all.

Like I do want to compete above my level at tennis, but not all of the time, and especially when I purposely set my level to the lowest and attend the lowest rated group sessions.

I dunno. I want the balance of training, competing, and playing for fun, but the latter part is severely missing.

On free courts in Griffith Park, Los Angeles there’s a guy who ties up a court for hours teaching a series of students. The general rule is if people are waiting for a court only one more set can be played and then it’s handed over. There is another sign saying teaching is strictly prohibited. Understandable that teaching isn’t allowed on free courts, it is massively unfair to everyone else. I guess this person has gotten away with it because no one is checking on it.

Do you think this should be reported?

I’m 27 and just started learning how to play tennis. Here is a little video of my backhand. Any tips and tricks are welcome :)

I'm a complete beginner and have been taking tennis lessons for a couple of weeks. I'm looking for my first racket and I'd like to stay under $200.

I've been looking at the Babolat Boost Aero and Babolat Boost Drive since they're both within my budget. They seem to be popular beginner/intermediate options, but I'm not sure how they compare in real-world use.

A few questions:

• Are the Boost Aero or Boost Drive good choices for someone just starting out?
• Is one noticeably more forgiving or easier to learn with than the other?
• Will I outgrow either of them very quickly, or are they good enough to use for a year or so while I improve?
• Are there any other rackets under $200 that you think are a better value?

For context:

• Adult male.
• Playing 2–3 times a week.
• Still developing my technique, so comfort and forgiveness are probably more important than maximum performance.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has played with either racket or started with one. Thanks!

I’m a 3.0 and play 2x a week with my much more skilled husband. He plays doubles in standing for-fun-only meetups with neighborhood friends …and they want me to sub. What do I need to know to hang with them? Basic etiquette wise, strategy wise- anything you yourself would have wanted to know as a doubles newbie.

Note: not all of them are in fantastic shape so their games tend to be slice-a-thons to compensate for reduced mobility lol.

If you want to include hard-learned lessons that you can look back and laugh at for the rest of us to be entertained by- I encourage that.

Hi! Been lurking this sub a little recently and thought it might be nice to get some recommendations because up until now my setup has just been based off the preferences of friends that also play.

I am a recreational player that would self rate around 3.0-3.5 for women. I try to hit 2x/week 1:1 with a couple different women and 1x/week 1:1 with a guy friend. Worth noting the guys I’ll hit with are significantly better than me and tend to hit the ball with a lot more pace than the women I hit with. I think it’s helped me in incremental improvements with generating more pace myself.

I learned to slice fairly recently and my overall game play is more diverse now. I use western grip and generally hit pretty spinny shots that have a lot of net clearance but I’ve been working to flatten that out more.

Anyway that’s just some context to say I think for a casual female hitter I hit with decent pace and ball positioning. I currently use an Ezone 100 and Yonex poly tour rev strings 17g at 53lb.

AI was saying I should consider lower tension and a hybrid string setup. I’m wondering what you guys would recommend?

Bought a head gravity pro 2019 from ebay. It plays good, feels good, Font etc checks out, but the color looks washed out on the red side if i compare it to my gravity tour 2019. Has anyone seen this before or is the raquet fake etc. How to know for sure?

A week ago I just realized I had no reason to use 98 when most pro/high level players use a 100. I mean 100 offer more benefits than a 98 especially if you are just a recreational player.

More power? Nice.

Bigger sweetspot? Nice.

Easier to play? Nice

But its only 2 sq difference, does it make that much of a difference? Should I just go buy ezone 100 and replace my 98 or stick with what I have.

Hello! I am a 2.5-3.0 player and I've recently started taking lessons to try and actually improve my game.

My back hand is somehow better than my forehand. With my forehand, I struggle immensely with hitting in front of me and "through" the ball.

My coach had me change my grip to a more western style to help with spin but I can't seem to get the windshield wiper motion AND hit through at the same time. So, I either have a spinny weak shot or a blasted flat shot that goes long.

Do you have any tips or drills I can use to make sure I'm hitting in front and still creating some spin?

Casual Rec player starting tennis again (~ 6 months now) from a 15 year hiatus. I play tennis for fun, I am not playing ranked matches but strive to constantly improve.

My ideal version of tennis is rallying with friends - hitting around 8-10 shots between us and then trying to finish the point from there. Occasional doubles points as well along with weekly tennis clinics (drills and games such as king of the court, etc).

Bought an Ezone 100 for myself and content with the performance with poly tour pro at 52lbs. I am able to hit deep, powerful shots (that often go long) and have a lot of confidence at net. Of course, I would love more control. However, after playing with it for a few months, I find myself really missing the joy of being able to feel your shot - something that makes me addicted to tennis. Currently, when I hit the ball I can barely even feel any connection. After hitting it’s so hard to tell from feedback whether the shot was good or not - I need to visually watch the ball to see where it ends up.

I am asking for any recommendations for either strings for my current Ezone or other rackets that may provide me with that joy of actually feeling connected to the shot again. Nothing is wrong with the ezone performance but just missing that raw connection to hitting. I know 15 years ago I had a prince racket that felt amazing that way.

Below is some information about rackets I had demoed before buying the ezone 100 and other string setups. The caveat being I have no control or knowledge of the string setups for these demos, so I understand they may behave differently than my opinions:

Pure drive 100: loved it! But at least the way the demo was strung (tried both rpm blast and hyperg) after 1.5 hr of play I definitely felt some arm soreness. Decided not to push my luck

Wilson blade 100 v10: absolute gem and so whippy and maneuverable. Felt more connected to the ball than the ezone but could barely get ground strokes past the service line. Could be a string issue with overly high tension.

Speed MP: felt sluggish in comparison to the other rackets. Shots felt kind of dead like hitting the ball with a board. Again could be a dead string issue with the demo. I think it was rpm blast.

Ezone 100 with hyperg at 54lb: way too high of tension for me. Felt no ball pocketing whatsoever in comparison to my now content 52lb PTP

Below is a list of rackets I have on my shortlist:
Retrial of head speed MP
Prince tour 100p
Prince tour 100 (either 290 or 310)
Technifibre Tfight 300

What are others that I should add for a trial to feel more connected? Any alternative string recs for the Ezone 100? Perhaps higher tensions multi or synthetic gut?

For the sake of everyone's privacy I'm going to keep it slightly vague.

I had no idea who he was during the match. He looked to be late 60s early 70s. Seemed to be in decent shape (age appropriate). After a couple games it became clear he was like a brick wall. If you hit to him, it was coming back. And the finesse was incredible. The ball was either at your feet, or a beautiful angle.

After the match, I looked him up. Turns out back in the late 70s/80s, he was an All-American in college, won a few ATP doubles titles, and had deep runs at Grand Slams.

Pretty crazy to run into a tour pro in a USTA league!

Have you ran into a former high level player in your USTA leagues?

I’ve used the Nike vapor pro 2s for years and stockpiled a backlog of them. After burning through them all, I finally “upgraded” to the vapor pro 3s. After two matches, the eyelets holding the bottom laces ripped through. One small design change and now these won’t work for me at all.

I play on hard courts and slide frequently. I love the feel of these shoes, so I’m looking for something similar, but will hold up better like the vapor pro 2s did.

How does a solid performance at state/sectionals affects one's USTA/NTRP rating?

This question is likely to trigger those who judge people who ask questions about ratings.

I'm not obsessed with my rating. But I do enjoy trying to understand the sphinx that is the USTA algorithm. I realize this is lame. I should only love the game for the game and not care about ratings and algorithms. I know, I know.

Also, I do not think I am awesome at tennis. I am objectively not awesome at tennis.

Just curious if anyone has a sense of how one's post-season record factors into the overall rating formula.

Thanks in advance for not dragging me or judging my lame questions!! 😆

Hi all,

I am a complete newbie (mid 30's Male, 174 cm) to the world of tennis. I started my classes a month and a half ago. I got myself a Kuikma Graphlite from Decathlon (106 in2, 265 g unstrung) - https://www.decathlon.in/p/8807657/adult-beginner-tennis-racket-tr-easy-graph-lite-blue, which I thought would be a good beginner's racket. After playing a while, I realized I was not improving my game/accuracy/power etc, and when I tried one of the trainer's racquet (Fischer make, 295 g, string - Babolat RPM Blast 47 lbs tension), I felt my play improved tremendously. I had a similar experience with another racquet of similar weight with Solinco Hyper G string. Based on this observation, a junior trainer offered to do stringing for me with the RPM blast set to 48 lbs. After playing today with the restrung racket, I have started feeling pain in my wrist and upper arm joint. I initially thought perhaps this is due to a new string. However, upon closer inspection, I noticed the string which he actually used was rather the cheaper one - Babolat Pro Last. I am quite annoyed he would do this, perhaps to pocket that extra money? leaving the money aspect, can the kind people here tell me how can I go about choosing a more appropriate string for the racket that I have now? Its only in the last two weeks, I realized the 265 g unstrung racket is probably not giving me enough power, and want to upgrade myself to a better one soon. But for the next 3-6 months, is there any use extending the usage of this racket if I change the string to something more appropriate?

I apologize for my English, it is not my first language.

So, I've been using the Pro Staff 97 V14 since the start of the year. For context, this is how it is set-up: 315g unstrung + 5g for Wilson Pro Performance Leather Grip + 10g for two Wilson Pro Overgrip + 5g for Luxilon Legacy Dampener Black + 15g Head Lynx Tour 17 strung at 50 lbs mains/crosses. However, since June, I've been experiencing wrist, elbow, and shoulder pain every time I use the Pro Staff. Thus, I decided that I needed to change from a heavy, 350g racket, to a lighter racket.

With Wilson announcing the Defyer, I bought one right away. The Defyer comes at 305g unstrung. My set-up is 305g unstrung+ 10g for two Wilson Pro Overgrip + 5g for Luxilon Legacy Dampener Black + 15g Head Lynx Tour 17 strung at 50 lbs mains/crosses, total of 335g set-up.

I used the Defyer today in practice, and here are my thoughts:

• Balls went long. In order to generate depth with the Pro Staff, which is really heavy on the arm at 350 g, I have to prepare early, swing fully, put my weight behind the ball while completely following through till the end of the swing. This is not entirely the case with the Defyer. The balls are flying long if I swing the Defyer with the same swing style I have as the Pro Staff. With the Defyer, I have to reign in my swing and just feather the ball and not fling the racket violently in order to control it.
• Slightly more forgiving. In terms of forgiveness, the Defyer still rewards proper form and technique. In late shots, you will still feel it in your arms if you missed the sweet spot. Although I would say, the drop-off in power for out of sweet spot hits with the Defyer is less when compared to the drop-off in power for out of sweet spot hits with the Pro Staff. The forgiveness aspect is more noticeable in late shots. With the Defyer I can still keep the ball in play since it is much easier to swing as compared to the Pro Staff which I feel like Thor's Mjolnir.
• Less feel. In connection with the forgiveness aspect of the Pro Staff, there is high drop-off in feel with the Defyer. This is because the Pro Staff feels raw and connected, while the Defyer has a lot of technology for power and dampening. Although there is a drop off in feel with the Defyer, I feel that I am still connected with the ball and I can still control where I want to place the ball, albeit not in the same degree as with the Pro Staff. With the Defyer, it didn't seem that Wilson sacrificed feel for power and spin, which is important for me since it's easier for me to control the ball flight when I feel connected to the ball.
• More access to spin. The Defyer has a more open mains string pattern towards the center whereas the Pro Staff has a more tighter mains string towards the center. Moreover, the string I've used with the Defyer and the Pro Staff is a shaped string. Thus, its easier to access spin with the Defyer. With the Defyer, I noticed that the ball might fly long but it will dip at the last second due to spin.
• Less stable at the net. In terms of volleys, it still is the Pro Staff that is better when you play around the net during doubles, or if you play a serve-and-volley playstyle. The Defyer feels less stable when I volley. I don't want to add additional rackets to the 3 and 9 to mirror the PWS system of the Pro Staff, as it will be counterintuitive to my switch to a lighter racket if I add any additional weight for how heavy the Defyer is.

Note that these are my personal, initial experience with the Defyer 98 Pro. I could be wrong that I could have solved my physical issues with proper strength and conditioning, and that I have merely given myself an excuse to buy a new racket (hehe). But, so far, I am loving the Defyer 98 Pro as someone who switched from Pro Staff 97.