The Best Racquets for Spin (and Control)

Are you looking for the best racquets for spin, but without losing out on control? Here are a few of my favorite spin racquets.

It’s sometimes difficult to list the best racquets for spin, due to several reasons:

1. There are many, many racquets out there
2. A tennis racquet is a personal thing, so it’s hard to say “best” about anything.
3. The racquet itself doesn’t generate spin, but it helps the player who does

Before we look at the best racquets for spin, we should think about how spin is generated.

How to hit with spin

You generate spin in tennis by hitting the ball on a more vertical plane with the racquet (the windshield wiper motion). This will force the ball to spin more and your strings to bend and move. So-called spin racquets often help with these two things: Aerodynamically helping you hit the ball more vertically and getting the strings to move more.

You can generate spin also by reducing the number of strings, which will also help the strings move more. Shaped strings will also increase the friction between string bed and ball, ever so slightly increasing the spin. However, some tennis nerds will argue that the effect of shaped strings on spin is pretty minimal. Another way to increase spin generation through the strings is to play with a coated string that helps it move and snap back into place. This effect is called “snapback”.

Spin racquets

The modern game of tennis is becoming increasingly reliant on generating a lot of top spin to help the ball stay in the court, even with massive swing speeds. Getting a lot of topspin on the ball, helps player swing as fast as possible and get the ball to kick up at the opponent. Most older club players with a more flat style of tennis know how difficult this can be to play against.

The most famous spin racquet is the Babolat Pure Aero, which was called Aero Pro Drive when it was released in 2004/2005 as Rafa’s signature racquet.

It’s still one of the best racquets to hit with spin. But, for more advanced players, it can be a bit too powerful. That’s why Babolat introduced the Aero Storm, (which became the Pure Aero VS) a while back. The racquet still offers the aerodynamics to hit with spin, but with a much more controlled string bed thanks to the 98 sq inch head size (compared to the 100 sq inches of the Pure Aero) and the 16×20 string pattern (compared to the 16×19 of most spin racquets).

The Pure Aero VS is one of the best spin racquets out there that still offers good control for advanced players.

The Best Spin Racquets for Advanced Players

To get more control from a spin racquet, you can either create tighter string pattern in the center of the racquet (such as in the case of the HEAD Extreme Pro or Dunlop SX 300 or a smaller head size like in the case of the HEAD Extreme Tour, which is also 98 sq inches like the Pure Aero VS.

The original Aero Pro Drive had a tighter pattern in the center and that is probably why Rafa has a hard time to let that racquet go.

But without further ado, here’s the best racquets for spin (and control) in my opinion. Click the name for my review.

HEAD Extreme Tour
Babolat Pure Aero VS
Dunlop SX 300
Yonex VCORE 98

More arm-friendly options
Wilson Clash 98
Prince Phantom 100X 305

Thanks for reading! If you want to support Tennisnerd, please consider buying one of these racquets (or something else) from one our affiliates:

Tennis Warehouse
Tennis Warehouse Europe
Tennis Only