Racquet Received: Clash Tour
String and tension used for test: Luxilon ALU Fluoro 16L/Tecnifibre Multifeel 16. 48/51
Tennis experience/background: 4.0. Been playing on and off for the past 10 years, mostly with friends with the occasion USTA league sprinkled in
Describe your playing style (i.e. serve & volley): All court with a preference to hang around the baseline.
Current racquet/string setups: Yonex VCore Pro 97 310g modded to 343g. Leather grip and lead at 2&10. Strung with Luxilon ALU Fluoro 16L/Tecnifibre Multifeel 16 at 48/51.
How many hours did you play with the racquet? About 30 hours, with the first 20ish playing the racket stock. Last 10ish hours added a leather grip to the racket.
Comments on racquet performance:
-Groundstrokes: The racket was immediately more powerful than my current racket, which would make sense given its thicker beam. The added power would've been fine, but the higher launch angle made hitting my forehand difficult as the ball would consistently fly long. During the first part of the playtest, I found myself whipping my stroke excessively just to keep the forehand in. The added power and launch angle was appreciated off the backhand wing as my backhand is a much flatter shot. I was able to get more net clearance with the same stroke. However, I did find I needed to actively brush the ball more to make sure it wouldn't sail out. Off both wings casual rallies were effortless, but trying to attack a ball required being more methodical because of the extra power. The feel of frame was interesting. Reports of this frame is that it's super flexible, but I didn't find it to be flexible. Never had that feeling of the ball sinking into the string bed. The frame was never uncomfortable, but I would the feel off the string bed to be a slightly more muted version of my VCore Pro. Having used the Duel G previously, that racket felt far more flexible when compared to the Clash Tour even though it is supposedly the flexier of the two. Off center shots were also relatively comfortable. Didn't feel like it was ever jarring, and the drop off in power was minimal. This perception is probably due to my experience of a sharp drop off in power when hitting off center with my Yonex. Slices were where I struggled the most. I could not get a good bite and the slices all tended to float high, albeit i was able to get them to land deep. After I added a leather grip to the frame, it felt more in my wheel house. Making it more headlight seemed to tame the power slightly, though I would still need to be careful when trying to attack the ball. Regular rallies felt far more fluid and effortless once I made this mod. Stability also did not suffer when making the frame more headlight. If I were to use this frame long term, I would definitely prefer it in this form. All in all, either stock or modded groundstrokes seems to be a strong point of this frame. Just wouldn't be my go to given my history with lower powered, thin beam frames.
-Serves: With all the power and launch angle, serving slice serves was a breeze with this serve. I found that I could put in very little effort to produce a nice sliding serve. Kick serves felt about average. I didn't notice any additional height from my kicker. The one serve I did struggle with was the flat serve. Not sure if it was the beam width or something else but I was never able to get a consistent swing for the flat serve. The power was there, but it was difficult to reign in and the feel on impact on the flat serve was a bit lacking. For some reason, going for spin serves made it easier to get a read on the feel of the serve. With the leather grip, all serves were about the same. I didn't find the extra weight helping or hurting what I was already experiencing with the frame stock. Overall, I'd say this was the weakest part of the playtest for me.
-Volleys: I was quite surprised when volleying with this. I did not expect this frame to be so solid at net. I'd say this was my favorite part of the playtest as I never felt like frame would twist around when making impact. Each time it was just a very solid feel, and a great point and shoot type of frame. As long as I kept the racket out in front and kept the swing to a minimum, the results were great. With the leather grip, the volleys were still very crisp. My preference would be to play it with the leather grip as the more headlight balance made it even more maneuverable without robbing it of any stability. I'll lump in overheads into this category as well. Just like the serve, overheads were a bit of mix bag. The flat put away overheads were a bit iffy, with the more defensive/neutral slice overhead being the better of the two for me.
-Serve returns: I would rate serve return as the 2nd strongest aspect of this frame. The stability and power made the shorter swing of a serve return much more effective. I could get away with being a bit late or not hitting super clean to still produce a good result. The inherent power, launch angle and stability showed itself as a huge plus here. Slice returns were similar to slicing when hitting groundies. I struggled to keep them low so my preference was to hit over the ball since that yielded a much better result.
-General reaction/comments on overall performance: Overall I'd say this was a fairly positive playtest. It's quite different from my usual setup so some of the issues I experienced came from my preference and familiartiy with lower powered frames. However, I could see this as being a viable option if it was the only option I had. If I had to compare this to another racket, I'd say it closely resembles the new Babolat Pure Aero, with a smidgen less power and a bit more comfort. Thus I think this racket will appeal to a wide spectrum of players, but probably less to those who are more acclimated to thin beam, lower powered frames.
Thank you Tennis-Warehouse for the opportunity to playtest this prototype.
