Stefanos Tsitsipas is the first teenager who has beaten four top ten players in a row and I thought it was high time to post an update on Stefanos Tsitsipas tennis racquet. At the time of writing he is in the final of the Rogers Cup against Rafael Nadal.
The specs of Stefanos Tsitsipas tennis racquet is something I am researching at the moment, but I know that he used to play with the 2013 version of the Wilson Blade 98 and is likely now using a Blade pro stock with the same mold. He strings it with Luxilon 4G at 25 kg (mains) and 24 kg (crosses). The tension might differ a bit depending on the conditions and surface of course.
Tsitsipas for sure has a big game that is now making waves with his spectacular performance in the Rogers Cup in Toronto. He has beaten Thiem, Djokovic, Zverev and Anderson in the same tournament and sometimes from quite dire situations and in spectacular ways. That Kuerten-like one-handed backhand together with the Borg-ish long hair is certainly an inspiring throwback. And together with his stellar fighting skills, it is hard not to see a glowing future for this 19-year-old Greek.
Stefanos Tsitsipas Tennis Racquet – What he endorses
Stefanos Tsitsipas tennis racquet is an older version with a paint job or simply a pro stock Blade, but he endorses the new Wilson Blade 98 CV in the limited edition Camo paint job. The Countervail edition of the Blade 98 is not a bad racquet by any means, but I prefer the 2015 edition myself which is something that a lot of players stick with today, thanks to the direct response of the frame (the CV edition is more muted).
The Blade 98 (in various iterations) is a really popular racquet among recreational players as well on the tour. It is simply a very versatile and nice-playing frame with a good-sized sweet spot and a static weight that leaves some room for customization.
Stefanos Tsitsipas Tennis Racquet – The future
What can we expect from Tsitsipas after his impressive performance in Toronto? Is this a one-off or will he be producing this kind of results? It is always hard to say how steady a young player can be on the grueling and ultra competitive ATP tour, but he definitely has the game and mindset to be a top ten player in a couple of years. The way he fought through his matches in Rogers Cup is really a good sign for him mentally.
But keep in mind that Tsitsipas is still young and might need a few more years to grow into his full potential. Considering how entertaining his game is, let us hope this process is relatively quick!
What do you think of Tsitsipas game and future? Can he be a future number one? Please comment below!
19 comments
What tennis shoes does Stefanos Tsitsipas play with? I have never seen any player go through 2 sets of shoe laces within a single tie break! Maybe the company should make him some steel-reinforced laces? 🙂
He’s using Adidas Barricade shoes, not exactly sure which model. The lace thing I’ve never heard about, but sounds peculiar! 🙂 Cheers / J
u know which string pattern?
thanks for content
greetings from brazil
Hi Enzo,
It’s 18×20! Cheers / Jonas
16×19 or 18×20??
18×20
Hi Tennisnerd
With regards to Pro Player specs I was talking to a stringer who works at various tour events and the debate has been about whether pro racquets have come down in weight or not, What’s your take on the situation ?
Hi Tom,
To me it is quite clear that the weight also on pro player racquets are going down. Not many are staying above 360 grams these days, but the big four still does (Djokovic has gone down a bit in weight however). Most young players are playing remarkably light racquets with relatively little customization and seem less picky than the older generations on what racquet they play with. So static weight and of course also swing weight has gone down. Players are fitter, frames are stiffer, lighter and swung faster, making up for the lack of mass.
Cheers / J
I just finished customizing my Wilson 2015 blade 98 16×19 frames by adding lead tape to bring the static weight up to 330 grams (strung) with a swing weight of about 360 grams.
What’s interesting is that there was a 10 gram static weight difference in the unmodified frames. That’s about 3 percent and my technician said that’s high but not unheard of.
Has anyone had a similar experience, and are some brands better that others when it comes to consistency?
Hi, yes, there can be relatively large differences between racquets from most manufacturers. Wilson is definitely one of the worst offenders in my experience when it comes to quality consistency. Yonex is top of the class at the moment and Fischer/Pacific used to have a guarantee of +- 2 grams, which I think is really nice and something other manufacturers should emulate.
re: PasDep
I used the 2013 Amplifeel version of the Blade 98 16×19. I was getting a sore shoulder, an aggravation of a previous injury. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. The spec weight was 304g, and counting 18g for the strings (which are usually 15-20g) they should have been 322g. Strung, one of them was north of 340g – a completely different racquet! The vendor took it back and gave me another one.
Since then I will not purchase a racquet without weighing it first (or having the vendor weigh it). I also weigh any racquet that I test. In my experience Wilson is particularly poor in this aspect of quality control. Prince and Yonex tend to be a bit better, though Yonex has an official retail product tolerance of 3% on either side as well. That means, for example that a 305g spec racquet could be anywhere from 295g to 315g and they would consider it good.
Most retail racquets, by the way, are over spec weight, usually <5g, but there is the odd one which is underweight.
If you are a pro then this is not relevant as you will have your racquets tuned and matched in mass and balance to be identical.
Racquets are not getting stiffer recently as most average around 64 rating and the Yonex Ai98 which is very popular is 63 RA. In the past yes they were more flexy say around 58 – 60 but Sampras, Fed and other PS95 users are 67-70 RA stiff frames.
I read a post on TW’s forums that mentioned his unstrung specs:
Weight – 315.6 grams w/ overgrip and 10 grams of resin in the handle
Swingweight – 308
Balance – 31.7
Flex – 68
If all of this is true his racket would be about 335 grams when strung with Luxilon 4G.
That sounds like it could be about right, I also heard that he is using a stiffer layup of the pro stock Blade.
325g static unstrung? why so light? is that common nowadays? you’d have to grip the handle to death to not have the incoming balls knock that racket off you hand no?
325 grams unstrung is not that light!
so something more similar to a Wilson Kblade 98?
Yes!
ah ok, maybe i’m just old and thinking people still weigh their rackets down like sampras hahaha. then how do prevent getting pushed around by a player with say 350g? do they just grip it extra hard to prevent the racket flying off their hands?