T1000
Legend
APDGT vs YTPM vs BLX 90 review
I got the chance to demo the Head Youtek Prestige Mid, Wilson BLXsix-one Tour 90, and the Babolat Aero Pro Drive GT. I thought I'd share my thoughts on the three since they are arguably the three most anticipated new racquets of 2010. The big three companies released their new editions of their flagship racquets and I'm in need of a new stick so why not start with these. Enough talk, here's my review, and as always don't take my word as the law, always demo and try them yourselves!
About me: I'm a 3.5-4.0 17 year old all courter. I play 4 singles for my high school and will be playing DI or DII tennis this coming fall. I'm around 80 in my section and 30 in the state. I consider my serve and volleys to be my strengths and my weaknesses are my backhand and mental game. I play with a Tecnifibre TFight 320 vo2 Max with lead at 3 and 9. I find the racquet is too powerful for me and lacks feel at the net. I'm looking for a racquet that has control and feel, but enough pop to help me out when I'm not feeling so strong.
First impressions: They all felt good in hand when I picked them up. I know that this is not an accurate impression of how the racquet will play but I found it interesting that they all felt great in the hand. Now onto the paintjobs. I love all of them. The all red on the prestige just looks amazing. The BLX also has a nice paintjob. It looks a lot better in person than it does online. It is really beginning to grow on me, but it is still not as good as the prestige paintjob. The aero pro also has a good paintjob. I'm a fan of red racquets but have had yellow/black racquets, like the rds 001 and rds 001 2008. I like how the black dominates the paintjob and the yellow comes into play, but not too much. It reminds me of the original aero pro, which I thought had a better paintjob than its cortex successor.
Groundstrokes: I tried the prestige first out of the three. I'm not a fan of 18x20 patterns since I have a hard time getting spin on my own. I definitely didn't think I would like it in such a small head size. I was trying this in place of the pro to see how the new technology came into play vs the Microgel Prestige Pro since the pro shop did not have a youtek pro demo. All I can say is wow. I loved hitting groundstrokes with this racquet. I got plenty of topspin with it, which surprised me a lot. My balls had a lot more kick when they landed compared to my old racquet. I found depth and pace easy to produce for a mid and tight pattern. I felt like Safin when I was going down the line on my backhand. I could feel an improvement there. Slices stayed nice and low with plenty of bite. The racquet was easy to maneuver and felt whippy, which I liked. Touch was really nice, I could feel the d3o working in this racquet. Definitely a positive experience. I tried the BLX next and had no trouble adjusting. I was letting the mass of the racquet do the work and getting plenty of pace and control. Lasers to the corners were easy to hit. My slices were staying up a little to much for my liking, not a lot of bite compared to the prestige. Touch was solid with this racquet, and the maneuverability wasn't to bad, but I would have to play with this racquet alone to get used to it. The Babolat was next. The groundstrokes were just awesome. Effortless pace, spin, and depth. It was just unbelievable. I felt like I could hit a forehand winner whenever I wanted to. It was easy to maneuver. Unfortunately like most babolats, I felt that the feel was not that good. It's an improvement over the last one for sure but still not up there with the best (in terms of feel).
Volleys: The prestige had an amazing touch of power and feel. It could hit drop volleys on a dime or drive volleys to the corners for winners. It was stable at net and held up against heavy passing attempts. I found not trouble getting the racquet around, it was really easy to move. I was not impressed with the BLX. It felt sluggish at net and I found myself late on volleys. Touch and power were awesome as was stability, but the maneuverability did not impress me. The Babolat was an improvement over all babolats I've tried at net. I found this one had the most feel out of every Babolat I've tried. Compared to the other two it lacked in feel, something I think is essential since volleys are my strengths. It was hard to move and it was stable. Power was good as usual but I wish this one had more feel.
Serves: The prestige was solid here again. Flat serves were bombs and I loved hitting a slice out wide, into the body, or down the middle. I didn't try kick or topspin serves so I can't really comment on those. The BLX had awesome flat serves but I felt it lacked bite on slice serves. The Babolat served bombs, both with flat serves and slice serves. I really enjoyed serving with this one.
Returns: I did not hit that many returns with any of these racquets so it would be unfair for me to comment on them.
Overall: These are all solid frames. I recommend everyone to try at least one of these. The new technologies are definetly an improvement over the previous models in my opinion. I liked the Prestige the best followed by the APDGT then the BLX 90. I'm going to try the prestige pro, mid, and APDGT again.
Power
1. APDGT
2. BLX 90
3. YTPM
Control
1. YTPM
2. BLX 90
3. APDGT
Maneuverability
1. YTPM
2. APDGT
3. BLX 90
Stability
1. APDGT
2. BLX 90
3. YTPM
Comfort
1. YTPM
2. APDGT
3. BLX 90
Touch/Feel
1. YTPM
2. BLX 90
3. APDGT
Serves
1. APDGT
2. YTPM
3. BLX 90
Groundstrokes
1. APDGT
2. YTPM
3. BLX 90
Slice
1. YTPM
2. BLX 90
3. APDGT
Topspin
1. APDGT
2. BLX 90
3. YTPM
Volleys
1. YTPM
2. BLX 90
3. APDGT
Overall
1. YTPM
2. APDGT
3. BLX 90
Ranking the racquets was tough; they were all very close and solid in each category. Just because it's third doesn't mean it's bad.
I got the chance to demo the Head Youtek Prestige Mid, Wilson BLXsix-one Tour 90, and the Babolat Aero Pro Drive GT. I thought I'd share my thoughts on the three since they are arguably the three most anticipated new racquets of 2010. The big three companies released their new editions of their flagship racquets and I'm in need of a new stick so why not start with these. Enough talk, here's my review, and as always don't take my word as the law, always demo and try them yourselves!
About me: I'm a 3.5-4.0 17 year old all courter. I play 4 singles for my high school and will be playing DI or DII tennis this coming fall. I'm around 80 in my section and 30 in the state. I consider my serve and volleys to be my strengths and my weaknesses are my backhand and mental game. I play with a Tecnifibre TFight 320 vo2 Max with lead at 3 and 9. I find the racquet is too powerful for me and lacks feel at the net. I'm looking for a racquet that has control and feel, but enough pop to help me out when I'm not feeling so strong.
First impressions: They all felt good in hand when I picked them up. I know that this is not an accurate impression of how the racquet will play but I found it interesting that they all felt great in the hand. Now onto the paintjobs. I love all of them. The all red on the prestige just looks amazing. The BLX also has a nice paintjob. It looks a lot better in person than it does online. It is really beginning to grow on me, but it is still not as good as the prestige paintjob. The aero pro also has a good paintjob. I'm a fan of red racquets but have had yellow/black racquets, like the rds 001 and rds 001 2008. I like how the black dominates the paintjob and the yellow comes into play, but not too much. It reminds me of the original aero pro, which I thought had a better paintjob than its cortex successor.
Groundstrokes: I tried the prestige first out of the three. I'm not a fan of 18x20 patterns since I have a hard time getting spin on my own. I definitely didn't think I would like it in such a small head size. I was trying this in place of the pro to see how the new technology came into play vs the Microgel Prestige Pro since the pro shop did not have a youtek pro demo. All I can say is wow. I loved hitting groundstrokes with this racquet. I got plenty of topspin with it, which surprised me a lot. My balls had a lot more kick when they landed compared to my old racquet. I found depth and pace easy to produce for a mid and tight pattern. I felt like Safin when I was going down the line on my backhand. I could feel an improvement there. Slices stayed nice and low with plenty of bite. The racquet was easy to maneuver and felt whippy, which I liked. Touch was really nice, I could feel the d3o working in this racquet. Definitely a positive experience. I tried the BLX next and had no trouble adjusting. I was letting the mass of the racquet do the work and getting plenty of pace and control. Lasers to the corners were easy to hit. My slices were staying up a little to much for my liking, not a lot of bite compared to the prestige. Touch was solid with this racquet, and the maneuverability wasn't to bad, but I would have to play with this racquet alone to get used to it. The Babolat was next. The groundstrokes were just awesome. Effortless pace, spin, and depth. It was just unbelievable. I felt like I could hit a forehand winner whenever I wanted to. It was easy to maneuver. Unfortunately like most babolats, I felt that the feel was not that good. It's an improvement over the last one for sure but still not up there with the best (in terms of feel).
Volleys: The prestige had an amazing touch of power and feel. It could hit drop volleys on a dime or drive volleys to the corners for winners. It was stable at net and held up against heavy passing attempts. I found not trouble getting the racquet around, it was really easy to move. I was not impressed with the BLX. It felt sluggish at net and I found myself late on volleys. Touch and power were awesome as was stability, but the maneuverability did not impress me. The Babolat was an improvement over all babolats I've tried at net. I found this one had the most feel out of every Babolat I've tried. Compared to the other two it lacked in feel, something I think is essential since volleys are my strengths. It was hard to move and it was stable. Power was good as usual but I wish this one had more feel.
Serves: The prestige was solid here again. Flat serves were bombs and I loved hitting a slice out wide, into the body, or down the middle. I didn't try kick or topspin serves so I can't really comment on those. The BLX had awesome flat serves but I felt it lacked bite on slice serves. The Babolat served bombs, both with flat serves and slice serves. I really enjoyed serving with this one.
Returns: I did not hit that many returns with any of these racquets so it would be unfair for me to comment on them.
Overall: These are all solid frames. I recommend everyone to try at least one of these. The new technologies are definetly an improvement over the previous models in my opinion. I liked the Prestige the best followed by the APDGT then the BLX 90. I'm going to try the prestige pro, mid, and APDGT again.
Power
1. APDGT
2. BLX 90
3. YTPM
Control
1. YTPM
2. BLX 90
3. APDGT
Maneuverability
1. YTPM
2. APDGT
3. BLX 90
Stability
1. APDGT
2. BLX 90
3. YTPM
Comfort
1. YTPM
2. APDGT
3. BLX 90
Touch/Feel
1. YTPM
2. BLX 90
3. APDGT
Serves
1. APDGT
2. YTPM
3. BLX 90
Groundstrokes
1. APDGT
2. YTPM
3. BLX 90
Slice
1. YTPM
2. BLX 90
3. APDGT
Topspin
1. APDGT
2. BLX 90
3. YTPM
Volleys
1. YTPM
2. BLX 90
3. APDGT
Overall
1. YTPM
2. APDGT
3. BLX 90
Ranking the racquets was tough; they were all very close and solid in each category. Just because it's third doesn't mean it's bad.
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