Prestige Pro 2023 16x19 Review
Executive Summary:
I play with heavy racquets, and for singles, I’m looking for a thin-beam player’s frame platform with some flex, good feel, predictable stringbed response, and plenty customization room. The Prestige Pro 2023 16x19 fits that bill.
The elongated narrower hoop shape of the 99” headsize allowed me to enjoy the ball shape of a smaller 95 head with the longitudinal stringbed forgiveness of a larger head size; it also moved the sweet spot closer to the hand, making the racquet play shorter and providing enhanced control and more linear stroke feel, at the expense of a bit of spin potential.
The racquet felt exceptionally well balanced for volleys in stock form. But for groundies, I needed to add enough mass at 10 and 2 to bring the sw up to 335 to make it come alive (I normally play with swingweights in the 360 to 380 range).
The full cap grommet gave the racquet a much crisper, firmer feel than I would have expected given its 58RA flex rating, but the response was predictable and satisfying.
Pros:
Control, Feel, Customizability, Predictable Response, Handsome Cosmetics
Cons:
A bit too light in stock form for players who are customization-shy. Felt like it needed mass added to upper half of hoop to make it shine and even out the weight distribution. Handle length was a little on short side for 2hb (I customized mine higher on throat for better upper hand comfort).
String and tension used for test:
My all-time favorite gourmet hybrid, ashaway kevlar 1.30 / zx pro black, thoroughly prestretched, at 60 lbs.
Tennis experience/background:
In my early 50s, high 4.5c ntrp (WTNd 20), ex 5.0 with self-taught strokes. I live and breathe tennis racquets with a passion. I have been experimenting with all different racquets in all shapes, sizes, lengths, stiffnesses and headsizes for many years. I have deep expertise in racquet customization for improving performance. I am CEO and owner of a racquet customization startup company with multiple Top 50 ATP pros under exclusive contract, including a recent slam champion.
Describe your playing style (i.e. serve & volley):
In singles, I am a crafty finesse / geometry player who uses depth, placement and consistency, good movement, with serve-and-volley and finishing at net the biggest part of my game. I’m not a power player. I don’t’ hit very offensive serves in singles anymore. In doubles, I S&V behind a kick serve and play almost exclusively in the forecourt taking most balls out of the air, and rarely coming over the top of my forehand. I slice most forehand returns in both singles and doubles. My 2hb is reliable.
Current racquet/string setups:
In singles, I prefer players’ sticks, currently using a Dunlop CX200 Tour 16x19 heavily weighted as my main racquet. In doubles, I’m currently using a heavily weighted-up Wilson Hammer Titanium OS (my doubles paddle).
How many hours did you play with the racquet?
10 hours, about half of it on the wall trying out new customizations. Rest of it in singles sparring sessions.
Groundstrokes:
First off, this racquet has a very unique hoop shape. The oval is elongated compared to most racquets, so that the width of the head is about the same as for my 95si Dunlop CX200 Tour, but the hoop is about ½” longer. I consider this a good thing.
The elongated hoop shape makes it easier to control the shape of a groundstroke trajectory with spin and height control, making it feel more like a 95 but with extra foregiveness.
The elongated hoop also makes the frame play with almost ¼ inch shorter effective length compared to other racquets of the same head size (that is, the center of the stringbed is closer to the hand). This is also something that I like about it. It adds a noticeable amount of control on one-handed shots, including the forehand and 1hb slice, without being too short for the 2hb and serve. The effective length was right in my favored sweet zone, as I have a closet full of midplus racquets shortened to 26.75” that I used for a 15-year period in my “shorty phase.” The shorter effective length adds a bit of extra effective mass behind the ball for a given sw, which also contributes to the added control.
In stock form, I found this racquet to be very low powered on groundstrokes, but having a pleasing grabby feel at impact. With the 58RA flex rating, I was surprised by the firm feel (felt more like 63 or 64 to me). I believe it was the full cap grommet placing some extra mass in the lower hoop that stiffens the response. I was able to control the ball quite well in my wall testing.
However, when playing points, I was definitely craving more mass.
And adding mass at 10 and 2 to take the swingweight from 320 stock up to 335 fixed that and created a super satisfying groundstroke racquet. My hitting partner was getting frustrated that I was running him around in the points, and kept saying that I had a better racquet today. This was still a lot lighter than my usual racquet setup, but it felt amazing. The extra weight also softened up the feel and made it feel more like I was cupping the ball (felt more like 62 RA with this weighting). The shorter effective length made it so my groundies were a little more linear than they would be with a more typical hoop shape, but I could still use the spin from the open string pattern to shape the shot. Targeting felt pinpoint. This racquet earned a slot in my bag on the groundies alone.
Serves:
In stock form, this racquet was very fast through the air, and I was getting good pace and decent spin on the ball. But since I normally play with heavier racquets, I needed to get some weight in both the hoop and handle for to feel fully confident on the trajectory control. Weighted up to 335sw, with some ample counterweight in the handle, this frame was pleasure to serve with. Maybe not the most powerful or the most spinny, but the stringbed had a very controlled and precise feel, and I was able to place the ball in the corners easier than I’m used to.
With the racquet weighted up closer to my usual spec (with lots of hoop mass heavy handle), the racquet actually felt very explosive yet with controlled trajectory on serves (no complaints):
Volleys:
The volleys were probably the highlight of the stock form part of the playtest for me. Despite being a lot lighter than I’m used to, this racquet was super easy to volley with in stock form. It just felt perfectly balanced for controlled and crisp reaction volleys.
Reaction volleys with stock PP:
When weighted up to my normal heavy specs, I enjoyed it even more, with the shorter effective length and full-length cap enhancing the crisp feel.
Serve returns:
I didn’t care for the underweight feel on returns in stock form, but after weighting up to 335 sw by adding at 10 and 2, my return was my favorite shot with this racquet. Very precise and pinpoint feel, with ability to shape drive returns of second serves, and could glide my forehand slice return DTL with confidence. The shorter effective length helped get my hand feeling more behind the ball.
Power:
In stock form, this is a very low-powered racquet, by design. Not a bad thing in a platform frame – I consider this a positive.
Control:
This is a very well-designed platform racquet for a player who relies on control. I felt very confident in my trajectory control with moderate added topspin, and blocks were rewarded with depth control from the predictable stringbed response.
Spin:
The 16x19 pattern felt very grippy with the Kevlar/zx hybrid I playtested with, and this grippy/grabby feel complemented the shorter effective length of the hoop geometry nicely to make up for the linear stroke feel. It wasn’t what I would call a spin monster by any means, but ample spin to enhance control.
Comfort:
This is generally a comfortable feeling frame on the softer end of the racquet spectrum, but definitely plays much firmer than the 58RA rating. My only comfort compliant was that the handle was very short, making a bit squishy to fit two hands on the handle.
Feel:
Feel was a highlight and I really enjoyed the feel of this one. The way the stringbed predictably grabs the ball was very satisfying. The full cap grommet stiffened the flex, and also gave me a feeling (in stock form) that the upper half of the hoop was a bit undermass compared ot the rest of the frame. Once adding a few grams to the upper hoop at 10 and 2, the weight distribution of the hoop felt better distributed.
Maneuverability:
This was a lot lighter and more maneuverable racquet than I am used to. I especially enjoyed my time doing reaction volleys against the wall.
Stability:
The cap grommet places a lot of mass around the perimeter and gives it high twistweight for its weight. Despite the thin beam, it felt more torsionally stable than most 20mm frames.
Final Comments:
I really enjoyed this playtest, and I am still figuring out exactly how I want to customize it. It has earned a place in my bag simply because the feeling of hitting the ball with a precise response and grabby feel is so rewarding.
Ongoing, I will be weighting mine up closer to my usual heavy specs north of 360sw. I can see this becoming my regular singles frame if I can get it tuned right. It’s pretty much everything I look for in a singles platform frame.
I have a feeling TW is going to sell a lot of this one.