First of all, let’s address the elephant in the room. For those of you thinking, “What does he mean players never switch racquets? I see Novak Djokovic using a new Head Speed every year!” Well, the big brands have tricked you.
Djokovic has endorsed the Speed Pro 360+, Auxetic, Auxetic 2.0, and the list goes on, but he’s never actually used any of those racquets. For most of his career, Djokovic has used some variation of the Liquidmetal Radical that came out nearly 30 years ago. Head paints his racquet to look like the newest version of the Speed, but that’s not what he’s using, and that’s true for many professional players. Pros are paid to endorse a line, but oftentimes, the racquet underneath the paint job is very different and probably much older.
Why is that? That’s because tennis is a sport of precision, confidence, and superstition. Like any athlete, tennis players need to trust in their equipment, but the tennis racquet isn’t just any old piece of gear. As the direct connection between player and ball, a tennis racquet is as important as the foot is in soccer, the arm is for a quarterback, or the cardiovascular system is for a runner. While it isn’t technically a part of their body, tennis players develop such a connection to their racquet that it effectively becomes an extension of their arm.
This is why players are usually so reluctant to switch racquets. Think about it: if someone told you, “We have the latest and greatest version of an arm, so give yours up and try it out,” you’d probably say no. Sure, it may perform a little better, but you know your arm, you know what it can and can’t do, and because of that, you know how to get the most out of it. It’s a similar sensation with players and their racquets, and that connection is worth more than any marginal increase in performance.
That was the traditional way of looking at it, but you can forget all of that because 2025 has proven that this is not the case anymore.
There have been tons of setup changes on the ATP and WTA in 2025—significantly more than we’ve ever seen in a calendar year—which begs the question: why? Why are pros so willing and, better yet, insistent on changing racquets? Has something changed on the tour? Has the game of tennis adapted past older technology? Is modern technology that much better that it trumps whatever connection players developed with their racquets? We’re going to talk about all of that today.
The Power Shift
It’s undeniable at this point: tennis courts and tennis balls have gotten significantly slower over the last few years. We’ve known about the courts for a while—tournaments like Wimbledon and the Australian Open have gradually slowed down their courts to increase rally time in hopes of boosting spectacle—but the balls, in particular, saw a drastic change in the post-COVID era.
High-profile players like Zverev, Djokovic, and Medvedev have all publicly criticized these slower, low-quality balls, but why is that actually a problem?
Slower balls combined with slower courts make it much more difficult to generate power. For players like Zverev, Djokovic, and Medvedev, who don’t take huge swings on every shot and prefer to redirect pace, this is particularly problematic. Pace redirection isn’t meant to instantly finish off a point but rather to slowly take control of a rally by taking time away from the opponent and eventually forcing a mistake. With slower balls and slower courts, pace redirection doesn’t penetrate through the court as much, which gives more time for players to run down the ball, effectively weakening that style of play.
The bottom line is, with slower balls and slower courts, the slower ball strikers need more free power for their style to be effective. They can either change the way they play to adapt a more Alcaraz or Sinner approach, or they can look for more power from their racquet, and that’s exactly what they’re doing.
Zverev and Medvedev, in particular, have made major changes to their racquets this season. Zverev had been using a pro stock Head Gravity Pro (formerly the original Youtek Speed MP) his whole career, and despite a successful 2024, he still decided to switch to something more powerful—the older Head Gravity Tour.
The only difference between the Gravity Pro and that Gravity Tour is beam width. The Gravity Pro has a 20-millimetre beam; the Tour has a 22-millimetre beam. A thicker beam means more free power in exchange for slightly less control, and while two millimetres may not sound like much, they make for a big difference in feel. It takes time to adapt to that difference in feel, but Zverev clearly thinks it’s worth it for the long-term boost in power.
Roger Federer went through a similar switch when he developed the RF 97. As he got older, he wanted more free power to end points quickly, and the RF’s 21.5-millimetre beam helped him do that. Of course, the RF is also 7 square inches bigger than his old Pro Staff 90, but 21.5 versus 17.5 millimetres makes for a huge difference in pop off the string bed.
Medvedev’s racquet journey isn’t quite as straightforward as Zverev’s, but he’s essentially looking for the same thing: easy power. This started in 2023 with his strings—he’d been using Tecnifibre Razor Code throughout most of his time with the French brand but switched to the more powerful Razor Code Soft for the Australian Open. He lost in the third round but then went on a tear, making it to the next five finals, winning Rotterdam, Qatar, and Dubai.
He made an even more drastic change in 2024, stringing natural gut in the mains and Razor Code Soft in the crosses. Natural gut is significantly softer than any polyester, so it’s an even stronger indication of his search for more power. He yo-yoed between full poly and natural gut hybrids throughout 2024, and most recently, at the 2025 Miami Open, he was back to gut mains and poly crosses.
Quite comically, the Medvedev roller coaster reached a peak earlier this year in Qatar. After dropping the first set to Karen Khachanov 4-6, he switched to what he described as “the racquet that fired full power.” It could be that he grabbed a more powerful string setup or that he has a more powerful Tecnifibre racquet for when things are way too slow, but one thing is for sure—Medvedev is not happy about the current state of pro tennis conditions. In his post-match interview, he went on to complain about slow balls and slow courts for the umpteenth time, saying that the all-out power racquet saved him, but he could have ended up missing every shot.
Medvedev’s comments about possibly missing every shot bring up a good point in the whole power vs. control debate. Wanting more power sounds great on paper, but actually switching to something more powerful has always been easier said than done. More power has historically meant less control, and the difference in playability between power and control racquets was at one point huge.
Power vs. Control or Power and Control?
During the 2000s and most of the 2010s, you had control racquets on one side and power racquets on the other. Control racquets, or player’s racquets, had small head sizes and thin, constant beams, while power racquets were thicker, stiffer, 100-square-inch frames with really open string beds. If a pro was playing with a control racquet and wanted more power, the step up toward a power racquet would have been far too big to ever consider a switch.
That’s not the case anymore because brands realized there was a gap in the market and began developing what I like to call modern player’s racquets.
I’m going to go into detail now about what makes these racquets so special because I believe the rise of modern player’s racquets is one of the key reasons why pros are comfortable switching racquets nowadays.
To better understand the great playability of these frames, we’re going to look at the first successful modern player’s racquet: the Yonex Ezone 98. The first Ezone came out in the early 2010s, and it had a 98-square-inch head size, but unlike most of the other 98s of the time, the Ezone had a variable beam with a thick hoop and a thin throat. The thick hoop made for more power than the average 98, but the thin throat and the smaller head size meant it wasn’t nearly as uncontrollable as 100-square-inch power racquets.
More power than control racquets is great, but pros usually value control over anything else because it gives them confidence. If the Ezone gave them power at the expense of any confidence, that increase in power wouldn’t be worth it. The x-factor with the Ezone was its spin. Because of its modern beam design, the Ezone also had more spin than control racquets, and by this point, spin had become such a crucial element for control that what it lacked in traditional control, it made up for in spin.
That blend of power, spin, and control was lethal in the hands of advanced players, and the Ezone 98 became one of the most popular racquets on tour. Off the back of its success, other brands started developing their own modern player’s racquets, and in 2025, we have a plethora of other options like the Vcore 98, Aero 98, and the Extreme Pro, just to name a few.
The key element with these modern player’s racquets is that, thanks to their combination of spin and 98-square-inch head size, they provide players with an equal amount of confidence as more classic 98s, with a noticeable increase in power. It’s no surprise that with the power crisis going on in tennis, many players who had previously used control racquets are switching to these frames, and we’ve seen multiple successful examples in 2025.
Where better to start than with the most successful racquet switch of the year, or maybe even of all time—Madison Keys. Throughout most of her career, Keys used a Wilson H19 18x20 pro stock frame, which has tons of control and very little power. Then, she switched to the slightly more powerful H22 mold in 2024 before shocking everyone in 2025 by showing up to Australia with a blacked-out Ezone 98.
The Ezone is significantly more powerful than both the H19 and H22, so it was clear that Keys was looking for more power and more spin to complement her aggressive style of play. Needless to say, it worked out — she won the Australian Open, tearing through the draw and taking her maiden Grand Slam. There has rarely been a more successful racquet switch story, and it’s proof that players who like control can still feel confident with these more powerful modern player’s racquets. She wouldn’t have been able to hit as freely with the Ezone if she felt a lack of confidence compared to her H19 and H22, but she did. That extra boost in power proved to be just what she needed to give her even more dominance over her opponents.
Stefanos Tsitsipas is another great example of a successful switch to a more powerful frame — I think we’ve all seen him playing with a blacked-out racquet during the last couple of tournaments. Tsitsipas’ game is centred around a big serve and heavy power and precision from the baseline, which brought him plenty of success in his early years, but he started to stagnate in the post-COVID era. His forehand didn’t have the same deadly penetration that it once had, which was partially because of a loss of confidence but also certainly in part due to the slower balls. He started to experiment with softer, more powerful strings before going all out and switching to a new frame at this year’s Dubai Open. Like with Keys, it proved extremely successful; he won the tournament after losing in the first round of both the Australian Open and Qatar Open with his Wilson Blade weeks before. He’s using an Aero 98, which is significantly more powerful, stable, and spin-friendly than the Blade, and the improvements in his game are there for all to see.
He’s generating much more power on his forehand than he has for a very long time, and the increase in spin is making that ball even more difficult for his opponents. That’s also why he’s confident hitting big with a racquet that’s so much more powerful than what he’s used to. The ball comes off a lot harder, but it’s not flying on him because spin is helping it stay in.
I can’t stress enough how important spin is on these more powerful modern player’s racquets. If it weren’t for their spin, players wouldn’t feel as confident as with control racquets, so they wouldn’t be able to hit those loose, powerful shots. I’ve said this three times now, but that is the magic with this style of racquet. Tsitsipas is clearly feeling confident with the Aero 98, so he’s able to benefit from its bigger hitting potential compared to his old Blade.
Another key element to the Aero 98 is its stability. Stability is a byproduct of a stiffer, thicker beam, and it helps to create a more solid feel on contact. Most of these modern player’s racquets are more stable than thin, controlled 98s because they all share these same beam characteristics. Of course, you can stabilize a thin-beamed racquet by adding weight, but that makes it more difficult to swing and bring quickly through contact.
Tsitsipas’ one-handed backhand has never been his strength, but thanks to the Aero 98’s extra stability and probably its lower weight compared to his Blade, he’s clearly more confident driving through the ball. I think we all saw that viral clip of his 9.8 backhand quality in a set against Griekspoor, and while I don’t know exactly how that number is derived, his backhand was clearly very good throughout the tournament. If you can swing faster with the same level of confidence, you will naturally generate more spin and power, which is how he’s playing that higher-quality ball.
So, Keys and Tsitsipas are two players who have successfully switched to more powerful racquets this year, and more seem to be following suit, with Alexander Bublik also testing a blacked-out Aero 98 in Phoenix and Miami. Beyond just 2025, though, we’ve seen a lot of professional players already adopt these modern player’s racquets, usually from more control-oriented frames. Part of the reason players like Tsitsipas and Keys have taken that leap is because these racquets have been so successful for their peers.
The current Vcore 98, for example, is the most powerful and spin-friendly Vcore to date, and it’s been extremely well received on the pro tour. Tommy Paul switched to it from the Blade back in 2023 and shot up the rankings, and now Joao Fonseca is also showing just how hard the racquet can hit. Kyrgios has used the Ezone 98 throughout his career, showing just how well it complements his powerful and spin-friendly style, and now Ben Shelton is demonstrating its big-hitting potential as well. Then you’ve got the Aero 98, which seems to be popping up in the hands of every young big hitter — Alcaraz, Rune, and Fils are all playing dominant, aggressive tennis with the frame.
The point is that tennis has evolved. The game requires more power and pace from the players themselves, so the dominant pro racquet has shifted from something more control-oriented to more powerful. That shift has been made possible by companies developing these hybrid racquets, and it’s not just the modern player’s racquet that represents this shift. Almost every racquet line in 2025 is more powerful, more spin-friendly, and more stable than it was a decade ago. Then you look at racquets like the Tecnifibre T-Fight or the Head Gravity Pro, which are some of the more popular thin-beamed control racquets nowadays — they both generate plenty of power and spin to be competitive in these faster-paced rallies.
I also think that recreational players like me can take some inspiration from the fact that even professionals are looking for more power and spin. I’ve always gravitated toward control racquets because I find they give me the most confidence, but nowadays the goalposts have moved for what is considered controlled versus less controlled. These modern player’s racquets end up being just as confidence-inducing for players with a modern, spin-friendly style, and they generate a tougher ball for your opponent, which is a win-win situation. I’m not saying control racquets are dead, but it’s always a good idea to adapt to the times, and the fact that even the most finicky, superstitious group of tennis players are willing to do that is proof that maybe the grass is greener on the other side.
I’m going to recommend five racquets that you should try if you’re playing with control racquets and you’re sold on this idea that more power and spin could be beneficial. Try the Pure Aero 98, the Ezone 98, the Speed MP, the Extreme Pro, or the Vcore 98. If you don’t want to take quite as big a step because, again, these racquets do feel quite different from true control frames, you can try racquets like the T-Fight 305S, the Gravity Pro, the Boom Pro, or either Pure Strike 98.
I am convinced that one of these racquets can work for most players because they are so well-rounded, but again, if you do prefer classic control racquets or even more classic power racquets, don’t worry, those aren’t going anywhere.
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