Wilson BLX Tour Limited

[Aditya Garg]

This racket is no longer listed on the wilson website? Is this because this racket has some problem? I was thinking of buying this here as i was getting it pretty cheap. Should i buy it?

[tennisntn3477]

That frame was discontinued. Don't see a listing for them in the new racquets here on TW. It's an extended length frame and typically smaller retail market as a result. Good frame, in my opinion. The BLX Tour is similar...and would be a good demo to help answer your question.

[mikeespinmusic]

Its entirely based on who you are and what you want you want to do with it.
Not to generalise, but its a chick's racquet, It was made for Justine Hennin - She was about 5 ft 5 1⁄2 in and 130lbs.

So basically it was made a for a lady who didn't have much height and wanted to add more power behind the ball. Its stiff (73), and has an extra 1/2 inch length for more leverage.

I have 2 of them but I switched from them a while back. The stiffness doesn't hurt because wilson uses blx for vibration dampening. Regardles of whatever string you choose, You won't even need a dampener with it. I'd recommend a poly to take advantage of the open string pattern.

The only reason this racquet was discontinued was because average joe wants more loopy spin than ever and this racquet was too powerful for guys to want to use and since guys spend the most time on the internet and forums....it sort of was doomed from the start.

Think of it as wilson's answer to babolat's pure drive plus.

Wilson's idea was to create a racquet that was powerful, light and yet stable thanks to the added stiffness. But still have the accuracy of a smaller, less forgiving 95 sq inch head size. And I think they did succeed. It can still hit good spin, but it favours penetration and accuracy.

I personally couldn't use them as I'm a much heavier male and I had to resort to lower powered poly's and Nadal style strokes just to keep it in play. And that really didn't line up with my game. It plays well though, my favourite shots with it are serve and volley. But its just too powerful for me.

[Ashley D]

Hennin hit the ball harder than most of us could dream of. I highly doubt it's too powerful for most of the men on this board. Besides, it's highly unlikely she played it stock! Not to mention it was also used by Kei Nishikori who is a hard hitting male last I saw him play.

[mikeespinmusic]

Originally Posted by Ashley D

Hennin hit the ball harder than most of us could dream of. I highly doubt it's too powerful for most of the men on this board. Besides, it's highly unlikely she played it stock! Not to mention it was also used by Kei Nishikori who is a hard hitting male last I saw him play.

Nishikori was using a paint job. I think he's sporting a steam racquet paint job now. That racquet was specifically made for hennin. She wanted extra length and stiffness for power but she wanted a the smaller head size for accuracy. Or so she felt. You're probably right though, they probably reduced the weight.

I've got two of them they look great. But I needed to string them up with low powered poly because they're like missile launchers without it.

[corners]

The Tour was the last of Wilson's Hammer Line. Since Justine is now retired I guess they might just drop it from their lineup. The Hammer racquets were all very light in the handle, or heavy in the head. It was a big deal for Wilson a decade ago, but they seem to be moving towards more even balance for their tweeners nowadays. The Tour line, especially the K Tour, always got good reviews from TW and I always wanted to try one. If you add some weight to the handle, with a leather grip or silicone, these frames are really no different than stiffer player's racquets now on the market. They just have light handles in stock form.

[SFrazeur]

Originally Posted by mikeespinmusic

Its entirely based on who you are and what you want you want to do with it.
Not to generalise, but its a chick's racquet, It was made for Justine Hennin - She was about 5 ft 5 1⁄2 in and 130lbs.

So basically it was made a for a lady who didn't have much height and wanted to add more power behind the ball. Its stiff (73), and has an extra 1/2 inch length for more leverage.

I have 2 of them but I switched from them a while back. The stiffness doesn't hurt because wilson uses blx for vibration dampening. Regardles of whatever string you choose, You won't even need a dampener with it. I'd recommend a poly to take advantage of the open string pattern.

The only reason this racquet was discontinued was because average joe wants more loopy spin than ever and this racquet was too powerful for guys to want to use and since guys spend the most time on the internet and forums....it sort of was doomed from the start.

Think of it as wilson's answer to babolat's pure drive plus.

Wilson's idea was to create a racquet that was powerful, light and yet stable thanks to the added stiffness. But still have the accuracy of a smaller, less forgiving 95 sq inch head size. And I think they did succeed. It can still hit good spin, but it favours penetration and accuracy.

I personally couldn't use them as I'm a much heavier male and I had to resort to lower powered poly's and Nadal style strokes just to keep it in play. And that really didn't line up with my game. It plays well though, my favourite shots with it are serve and volley. But its just too powerful for me.

I agree with the bold text.

Marketing approach and paint wise it is a "Chick Stick." The only major player they had endorsing it was Justine H. and she retired as it was releasing or just before it's release. This doomed it along with the already smaller market for flatter hitting players wanting such a stiff power oriented racquet. Loopier topspin players would want a more rounded headsize of a Pure Drive, Extreme, etc. It also vibrates badly and is noisy as hell without a dampener.


-SF

[SFrazeur]

The LTD is based on the Hyper Hammer 5.3 MidPlus (euro version w/ power-holes specifically.) I used the American release without the powerholes for a couple of years. They are similar. The LTD is certainly beefier feeling with more power due to powerholes, added weight and higher swing weight. The 5.3 MP is more maneuverable. However, the era for this sort of racquet is the late '90s early '00s before all the heavy arching topspin became so popular. . Oh yeah, and before that forgettable racquet called the Pure Drive came about.

I think the racquet could be popular eough if they went back to the drawing board and rounded the headsize to a Juice Pro like head shape, 27.25 length, called it a 98" and had an appropriate player endorsing it.

-SF