It’s the holiday season again, so what better time to reflect on and celebrate all the great gear that has come out in 2024.

We’re going to talk about all things rackets today, handing out a Rundie for the best power racket, spin racket, and control racket. Then we’ll go over the most well-rounded racket, the most surprising racket, and finish off with the best overall racket of the year.

To be eligible for a Rundie, these rackets need to fulfil certain criteria.

For one, they must have come out this calendar year — no rackets from 2023 or earlier are eligible. We’re also not going to include any limited-edition paint jobs whose actual frame came out in previous years. Of course, I also need to remind you that while I try to be as objective as possible in handing out these awards, a lot of it still comes down to personal preference. With that said, let’s hand out the first Rundie for the best power racket of 2024.

The Best Power Racket

Interestingly enough, no dedicated power racket came out this year. The new Pure Drive is imminent but won’t technically be out until January, but that’s not to say there weren’t some great, very powerful rackets released in 2024.

While the Extreme MP is technically Head’s spin racket, there has always been a lot of overlap between power and spin. The Extreme has a thick beam, a stiff flex, and a powerful, open string pattern; in fact, it might be even more powerful than true power rackets like the Ezone 100 and Ultra 100. There is such a thing as being too powerful, though, and the Extreme does tend to feel a little wild on contact.

It’s not just stiff, thick-beamed 100s that are good for power. While the Babolat Pure Strike and Wilson RF 01 may be considered control rackets, they pack a lot more punch than other frames in this category. The Strike 98 has a high swing weight, and its variable beam makes it a little more rigid than its thickness would suggest. Combined, these give it that great power profile. The RF 01 is similar in that its beam looks thin but is actually quite sturdy, which makes it one of the best rackets for redirecting pace.

One racket does stand out among the rest, though — the Head Boom Pro. While this racket has a fairly thin 22-millimetre beam, the real magic behind its power is its unique shape. Head designed the hoop to be wider and more squared off near the top, which effectively moves the sweet spot higher up, creating more leverage and power. The Boom MP may be slightly more powerful than the Pro thanks to its bigger head size, but it’s also not as controlled, so the Boom Pro is an overall better racket.

 

 

The Best Spin Racket

Many of the rackets released this year are great for spin but not necessarily true spin rackets. Similarly to its power, the spin is also impressive on the Pure Strike 98, especially on the 16x19. The Blade is definitely not spin-friendly enough to win this award, but it’s another control racket with a good amount of spin.

I was very close to giving this award to the Head Speed MP. At this point, we all know this is Head’s “jack of all trades” frame, and, of course, one of those trades is spin. There is one little issue with the new Speed’s spin profile, though: its high swing weight. Head consciously raised it to 326, and while it’s by no means a slow racket, it’s not quite as fast as some people would like.

The Extreme MP is extremely spin-friendly (pardon the pun), but it does represent a dying breed of spin rackets. Wilson doesn’t really have a dedicated spin line, Yonex has the Vcore, which is far from a traditional spin racket, and even Babolat’s Aero 100 has turned more controlled in recent years. The Extreme MP still has a very open string bed with huge spin grommets, both of which add a ton of spin but also sacrifice a lot of consistency. While it is nice that big-spin players still have an option like this, I just don’t think the Extreme MP is good enough at everything else to take home the spin Rundie this year.

The Extreme Pro, on the other hand, is definitely well-rounded enough. It shares many of the same spin features as the Extreme MP, but its smaller 98-square-inch head tones down the launch, giving it significantly more control. It’s still very spin-friendly, no question about it, but it has proven to work better for a wide variety of players and different styles.

 

 

The new version, while not a huge improvement on the Extreme Tour it replaces, is a little more stable out of the box, so the 2024 Extreme Pro takes home the Rundie for best spin racket of the year.

The Best Control Racket

We saw a ton of great control rackets come out this year, with the Wilson Blade being one of the most popular. I do have a slight gripe with the Blade, though: its feel, or lack thereof. Ever since the v6, Wilson has been actively developing layup technologies to make the Blade more forgiving. While these technologies do work, they sacrifice pure feel and connection to the ball. Feel is an essential part of control, so while I do think the Blade has become an overall better racket in recent years, it’s not quite as good for control and won’t take home this Rundie.

Wilson also released a brand-new frame this year: the RF 01. It was developed by Roger Federer in hopes that he would switch to it before his retirement in 2022. While that never happened, the racket’s playability is top-tier. Of course, Federer played with the Pro Staff for most of his career, which is obviously a control racket, and the RF 01 maintains a lot of that DNA. For point and shot precision and directional control, it’s fantastic, but it’s not a pure control racket like the Pro Staffs were. It has a variable beam and quite a stiff flex, which creates a somewhat launchy feel, especially when you slow the frame down for soft control. Because of that, it’s just a bit too limited in the rest of the control game to win this Rundie.

The Babolat Pure Strike 98 is another control frame that excels for an offensive style, but it’s not as limited for a defensive, counterpunchy type of control as the RF 01. It has a lower launch and a more forgiving feel, giving it more variety as a control frame. That’s why I’ve chosen it as the best control racket of the year.

 

 

The Strike always surprises me because I’ve made the mistake of ignoring it for many years, yet each time I play with it, it’s incredible. This much power and spin, along with this much control and consistency, is a killer combination. While it’s not the easiest racket to swing, it’s a gem in advanced players’ hands.

The Most Well-Rounded Racket

This is by far the easiest Rundie to hand out this year. The most well-rounded racket of 2024 is the Head Speed MP. I hinted at it earlier, but this is a racket that does everything well. It’s easily a top-five spin racket, and its power is very high, especially with the bump in swing weight that Head gave this new Auxetic 2.0 version. Control and consistency are also fantastic and really impressive when you consider how well it performs for power and spin. Part of the magic behind the Speed MP is also its manoeuvrability. While it is a 100, it’s shaped aerodynamically to cut through the air more efficiently, and the beam isn’t too thick at 23 millimetres. It’s great for scrambling around the court to play either defensive shots or to get up to the net for a volley. The bump in swing weight has made it a little slower, but again, it’s not a slow racket by any stretch of the imagination.

 

 

There wasn’t really much competition for this Rundie — the Blade 100 is great but not nearly as well-rounded as the Speed. However, I do want to quickly talk about a couple of other rackets. The Pure Strike, Blade, and Extreme Pro are never going to beat the Speed MP in a head-to-head well-rounded battle, but they are very well-rounded, considering they’re designed with specific characteristics in mind.

If you want the most well-rounded racket, then go for the Speed. However, if you err on the side of control and still want a good all-courter, or you like spin but don’t want to sacrifice much of anything else, that’s where those rackets can be perfect.

Racket That Deserves a Rundie but I Can’t Think of One

Before crowning our best racket of the year, I wanted to give a Rundie to a racket that I think deserves one, but I can’t quite come up with which category it’s the best at. The Blade 100 is a racket that a lot of our YouTube subscribers asked us to bring into the store last year, and we finally decided to with the Blade v9. Suffice to say, it was a good decision.

The Blade 100 is extremely well-rounded but maintains that Blade DNA with a heavy emphasis on control. It has a soft flex and a fairly low launch angle, but unlike its 98-square-inch sibling, it has a much bigger sweet spot. It’s a very forgiving racket, and this level of user-friendliness on a racket that’s also this good for control is rare. I was considering calling this section the “most user-friendly but also controlled while also being very well-rounded Rundie,” but I figured that was a little too wordy.

 

 

It’s also a very comfortable racket, so it’s comparable to the Wilson Clash. However, I much prefer it to that racket because it still provides decent ball feel and has such a better control profile.

The Best Racket of the Year Rundie

For those of you who follow our YouTube channel, you’ll probably already have seen this in our video outlining the five best rackets of the year. However, if you missed it, I’ll run you through the contenders.

 

 

The Head Speed MP was a solid update on the previous one while still maintaining the core DNA of what made that racket so popular. It’s a racket that works for a lot of people — this is our best-selling racket of the year. However, because it wasn’t a revolutionary update, I’m not going to crown it the racket of the year.

The Babolat Pure Strike 98’s update was great as well, and it was more significant than the Speed’s. The racket is a ball striker’s dream that is perhaps a little exclusive to advanced players, but if you can swing it, you’ll love it. Any other year it could have easily taken home this award. Unfortunately for the Strike, we did see a revolutionary new racket come out in 2024.

The Rundie for the best racket of 2024 goes to the Wilson RF 01. You can go for the Pro or the Standard — both are excellent. The Pro is a little more demanding and rewarding, and the 01 is more user-friendly.

When I first saw these rackets, I’ll admit I was worried. They looked fairly standard, and I wasn’t in love with the paint job. Then I took them out to the court. I meshed with them right away and immediately understood that these were unique in this industry.

The RF 01 line is made for a highly specific game style, and there’s no better way to describe that style than the name Roger Federer. These rackets excel when you take the ball early and on the rise while trying to hit penetrating, point-ending shots with high precision and power in an offensive, all-court game. They are not made for grindy spin, counterpunchy control, and they’re certainly not user-friendly. However, if your style happens to suit their design, no other racket will come close.

 

 

With all that said, I do understand why they haven’t been everyone’s cup of tea. All-out offence is not a style we see a ton of anymore, and that’s really all they can be used for. However, because they’re so good at that and because Wilson has accomplished something totally new and so effective, I’m extremely impressed and left with no choice other than to award them racket of the year.

That wraps up our 2024 Racket Rundies. Hopefully, you can use it as a guide if you are shopping around for a new racket, either for yourself or as a gift this holiday season. Happy Holidays!