Pure Control Tour Plus Demo???

[QuadCam]

I just saw that Babolat added the Pure Control Tour Plus to the US lineup. It's available for sale, but no demos are available.

A few years ago, I finally decided to get new racquets after playing with Prince Titanium Michael Change MidPlus racquets for almost 15 years. I couldn't get grommets/bumpers for them and one finally cracked at the bottom of the hoop. BTW, I'm a 4.5, 40 year old player with a heavy topspin game. I use lots of spin on both forehands and serves. Since then, I've gone from the Babolat 2012 PDR+ to Donnay XP Duals to Prince EXO3 Tour 16x18s.

I think I played the 28" Prince Titanium Chang for so long that I'm so accustomed to the high swingweight; an old review said it had a 360 swingweight. add in the 14x18 string pattern and 95 SqIn head, it would crush balls. With a full bed of Alu Power @60 PSI, seeing yellow fuzz in the air after ball contact was a common occurance. That's the main reason I went with the PDR+.....long and heavier than most. I had an unfortunate acute Tennis Elbow issue that caused me to bail on the PDR. SO, I went the complete opposite direction with the Donnays. I had to add so much weight to them. I played well with them, but I never really loved them. The EXO3 tours have been a nice upgrade to the Donnays, but serving with them is work. Great for my Lefty wide serves and reasonable pop on 1st serves, but I notice that I don't get nearly as many aces as I used to. The EXO3 Tours are so comfy though and I can rip forehands with them. I've added some lead to head of those as well. They definitely feel unstable with hits that are outside the sweetspot, though.

To make a long story short, I've been intrigued by the reviews on the Babolat Pure Control Tour..... and now that they've added a 27.5" PLUS version, I'm excited about demoing this racquet. It seems it may have that flexible "players" feel, but with enough pop and mass to get me back to the feeling I had with the Changs.

Any experience anyone has had with would be greatly appreciated. I have a feeling that this new Bab racquet is just too new and no one has really put it though its paces yet.

 

[WhiteStripes]

Hit the stick through a Babolat rep several weeks ago. Like with all the 2014 Control line, I preferred the old Storms (the Tour+ GT was my main stick for about 4 years). The Control Tour+ swings a bit faster and more whippy, which is actually nice since the Storm Tour+ swung very heavy. But it doesn't have quite the same plush feel, nor the solidity in stock form as prior Storms. Frankly, I feel all the new Controls need more weight in the head. Still, good stick and after a brief adjustment time, I could honestly could play with it without much change in my game. And if you're coming from an EXO3 Tour (which I also played with briefly for about a year), it's a pretty different stick. The trajectory and response off the stringbed alone will be quite different.

 

[QuadCam]

W S,

Thanks for the response. One of things i don't like about the exo3 tour is the high launch angle. I was always a heavy topspin player....long before it became the latest marketing rage. So, the exo3 tour makes it harder for me to flatten out a put away shot.

I'll just have to wait to demo the control tour and control tour plus.

 

[WhiteStripes]

W S,

Thanks for the response. One of things i don't like about the exo3 tour is the high launch angle. I was always a heavy topspin player....long before it became the latest marketing rage. So, the exo3 tour makes it harder for me to flatten out a put away shot.

I'll just have to wait to demo the control tour and control tour plus.

Absolutely true on the Exo3 Tour 16x18's launch angle. It was great for me for endless topspin grinding from the baseline, but like you, it was erratic when flattening out/driving out balls. I actually switched to the stick from my Storm Tour+ GTs for a little while because I had some short term success just outgrinding the hell of people. Eventually, that wore off and I moved back to my Storms.

With the Storm Tour (and plus) or the Control Tour (and plus), the ability to drive balls is excellent for me. I just preferred the Storms over the new Controls because it felt like there was more weight behind the ball with the Storms. Also, the Storm Tour+ to this day remains my favorite serving stick of all time. It just became a bit too much for my liking to swing these days though and I moved on.

The Control Tour and Tour+ are great all-around sticks. If you're already a heavy topspin player, the sticks are great at hard, driving topspin balls, as opposed to the more loopy topspin balls that I was getting from my old EXO3 Tour. Both the Control Tour and especially Tour+ were much better serving sticks than the EXO3 Tour, which for me was one of shots I struggled with in being to get that easy pace I was used to with other sticks.

 

[QuadCam]

It sounds like we've had similar experiences with the exo3 tour. I, too, feel that the serve suffers with the exo3..... It's good on the kicks and slices, but hard to dial in accuracy on flatter serves....... And really have to put a lot of effort in to get a lot of speed.

So, what racquet did you end up going with?

 

[TW Staff]

I just saw that Babolat added the Pure Control Tour Plus to the US lineup. It's available for sale, but no demos are available.

A few years ago, I finally decided to get new racquets after playing with Prince Titanium Michael Change MidPlus racquets for almost 15 years. I couldn't get grommets/bumpers for them and one finally cracked at the bottom of the hoop. BTW, I'm a 4.5, 40 year old player with a heavy topspin game. I use lots of spin on both forehands and serves. Since then, I've gone from the Babolat 2012 PDR+ to Donnay XP Duals to Prince EXO3 Tour 16x18s.

I think I played the 28" Prince Titanium Chang for so long that I'm so accustomed to the high swingweight; an old review said it had a 360 swingweight. add in the 14x18 string pattern and 95 SqIn head, it would crush balls. With a full bed of Alu Power @60 PSI, seeing yellow fuzz in the air after ball contact was a common occurance. That's the main reason I went with the PDR+.....long and heavier than most. I had an unfortunate acute Tennis Elbow issue that caused me to bail on the PDR. SO, I went the complete opposite direction with the Donnays. I had to add so much weight to them. I played well with them, but I never really loved them. The EXO3 tours have been a nice upgrade to the Donnays, but serving with them is work. Great for my Lefty wide serves and reasonable pop on 1st serves, but I notice that I don't get nearly as many aces as I used to. The EXO3 Tours are so comfy though and I can rip forehands with them. I've added some lead to head of those as well. They definitely feel unstable with hits that are outside the sweetspot, though.

To make a long story short, I've been intrigued by the reviews on the Babolat Pure Control Tour..... and now that they've added a 27.5" PLUS version, I'm excited about demoing this racquet. It seems it may have that flexible "players" feel, but with enough pop and mass to get me back to the feeling I had with the Changs.

Any experience anyone has had with would be greatly appreciated. I have a feeling that this new Bab racquet is just too new and no one has really put it though its paces yet.

QuadCam,

Demos are coming! As well as a TW Review!

Michelle, TW

 

[QuadCam]

QuadCam,

Demos are coming! As well as a TW Review!

Michelle, TW

Michelle,

Thank you for the response. What kind of time frame are we talking about for the demos and the TW review?

 

[TW Staff]

Michelle,

Thank you for the response. What kind of time frame are we talking about for the demos and the TW review?

QuadCam,

Just talked to our demo department and it looks like they should be ready to go in a week or two.

And our video review should be up shortly (I would imagine within the next week) with the written review to follow in a few weeks.

Michelle, TW

 

[QuadCam]

Thanks again Michelle. Can you comment on how your playtest went with this raquet?

 

[TW Staff]

Thanks again Michelle. Can you comment on how your playtest went with this raquet?

QuadCam,

I didn't spend too much time with that racquet, but I was on the Pure Control 95+ (which I loved!). But I spoke with Andy (who was on both playtests) and he prefers the PC95+ to the Tour+because it felt easier to maneuver, had more control and better feel.

Michelle, TW

 

[WhiteStripes]

It sounds like we've had similar experiences with the exo3 tour. I, too, feel that the serve suffers with the exo3..... It's good on the kicks and slices, but hard to dial in accuracy on flatter serves....... And really have to put a lot of effort in to get a lot of speed.

So, what racquet did you end up going with?

Modified Pure Strike 18x20, although tinkering with the 16x19 now. The Control 95 (like the old Storm LTD GT, which I briefly used) is sweet, sweet racquet. Best feel of any Babolat stick, but a bit too low powered and demanding for me these days. Have yet to try to the plus version of it though. Nice to see it available in an extended length finally in the US. The Storm Ltd+ GT was only available in Europe.

 

[cjo128]

I just saw that Babolat added the Pure Control Tour Plus to the US lineup. It's available for sale, but no demos are available.

A few years ago, I finally decided to get new racquets after playing with Prince Titanium Michael Change MidPlus racquets for almost 15 years. I couldn't get grommets/bumpers for them and one finally cracked at the bottom of the hoop. BTW, I'm a 4.5, 40 year old player with a heavy topspin game. I use lots of spin on both forehands and serves. Since then, I've gone from the Babolat 2012 PDR+ to Donnay XP Duals to Prince EXO3 Tour 16x18s.

I think I played the 28" Prince Titanium Chang for so long that I'm so accustomed to the high swingweight; an old review said it had a 360 swingweight. add in the 14x18 string pattern and 95 SqIn head, it would crush balls. With a full bed of Alu Power @60 PSI, seeing yellow fuzz in the air after ball contact was a common occurance. That's the main reason I went with the PDR+.....long and heavier than most. I had an unfortunate acute Tennis Elbow issue that caused me to bail on the PDR. SO, I went the complete opposite direction with the Donnays. I had to add so much weight to them. I played well with them, but I never really loved them. The EXO3 tours have been a nice upgrade to the Donnays, but serving with them is work. Great for my Lefty wide serves and reasonable pop on 1st serves, but I notice that I don't get nearly as many aces as I used to. The EXO3 Tours are so comfy though and I can rip forehands with them. I've added some lead to head of those as well. They definitely feel unstable with hits that are outside the sweetspot, though.

To make a long story short, I've been intrigued by the reviews on the Babolat Pure Control Tour..... and now that they've added a 27.5" PLUS version, I'm excited about demoing this racquet. It seems it may have that flexible "players" feel, but with enough pop and mass to get me back to the feeling I had with the Changs.

Any experience anyone has had with would be greatly appreciated. I have a feeling that this new Bab racquet is just too new and no one has really put it though its paces yet.

I am playing with the PCT currently and enjoying it so far. I have played with a modified standard pure storm GT for years and transitioned to a modified Wilson PS95. I found the 95 a bit too low powered and eventually tried the PCT.

It's still a control racquet but for me, provides significantly more pop than the 95. As stated previously, it's crisp and solid with a sufficient HL balance capable of producing effective topspin and flat hitting. Biggest difference between the 95 is definitely serving. Much easier to hit flat with pace using the PCT but can also hit the slice or kicker.

 

[Kalin]

Quad, have you considered the new 28" Prince 100 sqin sticks? I can't demo them where I live but they seem to have very nice specs indeed.

 

[TW Staff]

Michelle,

Thank you for the response. What kind of time frame are we talking about for the demos and the TW review?

Looks like the videos are up for anyone interested!

Pure Control 95 Plus --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNYL185fbEE

Pure Control Tour Plus --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHh5yZBn9EQ

Michelle, TW

 

[PhxRacket]

Absolutely true on the Exo3 Tour 16x18's launch angle. It was great for me for endless topspin grinding from the baseline, but like you, it was erratic when flattening out/driving out balls. I actually switched to the stick from my Storm Tour+ GTs for a little while because I had some short term success just outgrinding the hell of people. Eventually, that wore off and I moved back to my Storms.

With the Storm Tour (and plus) or the Control Tour (and plus), the ability to drive balls is excellent for me. I just preferred the Storms over the new Controls because it felt like there was more weight behind the ball with the Storms. Also, the Storm Tour+ to this day remains my favorite serving stick of all time. It just became a bit too much for my liking to swing these days though and I moved on.

The Control Tour and Tour+ are great all-around sticks. If you're already a heavy topspin player, the sticks are great at hard, driving topspin balls, as opposed to the more loopy topspin balls that I was getting from my old EXO3 Tour. Both the Control Tour and especially Tour+ were much better serving sticks than the EXO3 Tour, which for me was one of shots I struggled with in being to get that easy pace I was used to with other sticks.

If you had to choose between a PCT and a Pure Strike 16x19; which would choose and why?