Got to try the Pure Drive Plus a few times this weekend. Got better each time as the strings loosened up. Will need a few more times out with it and for my back to get better.
Edit 1-2-2025 after a few weeks of playing
String and tension used for test: 48/42
Tennis experience/background: Played a lot as kid, quit and fell in love with the game again. Just went to nationals as 4.5
Describe your playing style (i.e. serve & volley): Serve and Volley for doubles, 1st strike for singles or offensive attempts, not a grinder
Current racquet/string setups: Yonex VCore 95 16x20 2023 and Babolat Pure Aero Plus 2023 50 mains Dunlop black widow 39 cross solinco tour bite
How many hours did you play with the racquet? About 16 hours
Comments on racquet performance for each stroke (each section should be 3-5 sentences minimum):
-Groundstrokes: I really like this racket for Forehands. It came strung so I’m not sure the tension but likely the midpoint of rec tension and I thought that was too tight and that made it slightly less stable with a smaller sweet spot to me. Felt great on forehands either way, higher tension or lower tension. A lower tension made it more forgiving to me on the backhand side. I wasn’t a huge fan of it for 1 hand backhands stock, I tried the review stock the first few times and a leather grip afterwards really improved it for me as a 1hbh player
-Serves: This racket really shines on serves. Unfortunately I had a bad back the first few weeks of the test but even with that this thing served amazing. Great kick servers, good amount of power, higher percentage of 1st serves. A lot of confidence even the 1st time I used it, serves that usually just land out found a way in with this racket. I tried 25 or more sticks this year and this was probably top 2 serving sticks I tried. It served better than Pure Aero Plus imo
-Volleys: Originally I did not like this for volleys orgiinally. With the higher tension/strings just too small a sweet spot at this tension. I also tried to play it stock for the beginning of the test to best judge it. It volleyed much better with a leather grip. I prefer a slightly heavier HL stick for volleys. It volleyed a lot better at a lower tension.
-Serve returns: Forehand returns felt great. Couldn’t find stability on 1hbh return compared to VCore 95. It needs a bit more weight for 1hbh return. Two handers might be fine with it stock. Too light for me stock to hit penetrating returns. It could use a bit of lead for returns.
Power/Control- Good amount of power especially on the serve. Maybe a bit too powerful coming from my usually stick vcore 95, similar maybe a bit power than the Pure Aero plus. I played with the Pure aero plus 2023 version for awhile and found that to have more control.
Top Spin/Slice- I can’t say it had anymore topspin than the other rackets. Compared to the Pure Aero 2023 Plus it had maybe a tiny bit more topspin. I didn’t noticed anything different for slices for me except that slice feel was a lot better with leather grip Vs stock. Stock my slices were a little floaty
Comfort- There was no discomfort. I tend to like my rackets on the lower tension side. It did come strung tighter than I usually play and I didn’t feel any discomfort even at the high tension.
Feel- I didn’t feel much different than Pure Aero 2023 plus or Solinco Blackout XTD. I have 2019 Pure Drive Plus, this felt a bit softer. For touch shots I didn’t that confident with it but I can’t fault the racket I only played 16+ hours and I played with Aero Plus and Blackout XTD for a year.
Maneuverability- Very maneuverable for a 27.5 plus racket. One of the easier 27.5 rackets I’ve used, but I’m used to them, it’s easier to swing than the solinco whiteout xtd, and probably similar to pure aero plus too.
Stability-Stability was fine when I went slightly lower tension. When I first got it the stability wasn’t as good as I thought. Not sure if it’s just me but I find higher tension with 300g racket lacking a bit stability. This changed with leather grip, I felt there was decent amount more stability with leather grip/lower tension.
General reaction/comments on overall performance: Great serving racket and good for forehands. I tried stock but this racket to me played with better feel, stability with a leather grip and slight lower tension. My 1hbh I found was off but that’s just my weaker side. A lot of the game is based on serve so if I had a lot of time to tinker with a leather grip and maybe a little lead tape this racket could definitely be a weapon. I played a lot with the 2023 Pure Aero Plus and the 2025 Pure Drive Plus definitely served better, probably liked it better on the forehand side, but for volleys, 1hbh, touch I preferred the Pure Aero Plus.
