Yesterday, we published a video about pro player racquet changes in 2023. We also talk a lot about strings and even some shoes in the video.
Pro Player Racquet Changes 2023
Let us look back and summarize 2023 when it comes to pro player racquets and strings.
The year started with some spots of players using the ON Roger tennis shoe. Gael Monfils, Jack Sock and Leylah Fernandez.
Sock is retired from tennis and mainly playing pickleball. He also just had a baby. Congrats, Jack! Monfils is using Artengo shoes, and Leylah Fernandez is using some shoes that I think are not for tennis, but some shoe nerd will know this better.
Dutch Tim Van Rijthoven won a grasscourt title in 2022 but has been injured all of 2023 due to an elbow injury. He switched from an Ezone 98 to a Dunlop FX 500 Tour.
WTA player Magda Linette has moved from her Babolat Pure Drive to a Yonex Ezone 100.
Panna Udvardy has ditched her Yonex VCORE for an Artengo TR 930 Spin Pro.
Jenson Brooksby is provisionally suspended for missing doping checks, similar to what happened to Mikael Ymer, who announced his retirement later. Before that, he moved over to Dunlop, but it did look like his old Blade 98 was painted like a Dunlop.
Tommy Paul’s switch worked out well
Tommy Paul moved from his Blade 98 to a new Yonex VCORE 98. Quite a big move, but it seemed to have worked out for him.
Two players who were testing loads of string setups during the year was Stefanos Tsitsipas and Ben Shelton.Â
Tsitsipas was back and forth between Luxilon 4G, gut and 4G, 4G and gut, Alu Power, Alu Power and gut and so on. We will see where he ends up for 2024.
Shelton was testing different colorways of Yonex Poly Tour Rev and now has settled on Poly Tour Pro and Poly Tour Strike hybrid. He will be an exciting player to follow in 2024.
Alex de Minaur moved from a full bed of Luxilon 4G Rough to a hybrid with natural gut in the mains.
Sebastian Kordas blacked out racquet is still a bit of a riddle. It looks like a blacked out Blade 98 in 18×19 string pattern, but why is it blacked out? Is it a personal preference or something else.
Brandon Nakashima moved from his Babolat Pure Strike 98 to a Yonex Ezone 98.
Medvedev had a decent year but no grand slam titles. He did have a great run of titles after he switched from his Razor Code White to the new Razor Soft. It may not be the best name as it is not technically a soft string, but it is a good one. Check out our Razor Soft string review.
French hothead Corentin Moutet had wrist problems and played a chunk of the year only slicing on the backhand and serving a lot of underhand serves. He also switched from his Wilson Pro Open Pro stock to a Tecnifibre TF-X1.
Marcos Giron switched from his Yonex VCORE 95 to a Percept 97D. A racquet we have yet to review. It is a heavier, dense pattern version of the Percept 97.Â
