At Dunlop we are proud to partner with the prestigious IMG Academy in Florida. Not only does it give some of the best Tennis talent in the world access to our products, but we get access to people like, Director of Tennis, Jimmy Arias. An ex-Tennis professional and someone who is just about the most qualified person on the planet to be able to talk us through the Dunlop range of premium rackets.

Know what your game is

Selecting the right racket for you is always a challenge and it may be a challenge that many people don’t give enough thought too. Are you using the right racket? Do you really understand your game style? The very first thing that Jimmy tells us is that you need to ‘know what your game is’, this is the most important thing to figure out when choosing which racket is right for you.

Not sure what your game is? Well, firstly – If you have a coach, you should ask them but if you don’t we’ll try to help you figure it out. As a very top line, if you have lots of racket head speed and can generate a lot of power yourself, you’ll need a control racket. However, if you want the racket to do some of that work for you, then your going with power. If you hit with spin and want a little more spin, go with spin.

Jimmy break’s down his thoughts on each of the premium racket series’ from Dunlop which will give you more of an idea where you may fit.

CX

The CX is Dunlop’s control racket. ‘When I play an exhibition match, I’d probably use this because I don’t care if I lose to my opponent, I just want to look like I can hit the ball in’. Being an ex-pro player, Jimmy doesn’t have an issue with racket head speed and can generally rely on himself to find the sweet spot. What this means is, a control racket like the CX 200 will maximize consistency for him and feel like he has maximum trust in hitting the ball in every time. As he puts it ‘consistent feel’.

SX

The SX series is Dunlop’s spin racket. Created to help spin players make more shots and built for the Spin Generation, it’s a racket that focuses on generating extra spin but also helping off-center shots be more accurate with spin boost+ grommets. As Jimmy states, ‘the spin racket would probably be the best for me at one time because I did hit plenty of top spin but now I mainly play exhibitions and all it would do is make my opponent not look very good because it’s difficult to play someone who has a very heavy, very spinny ball.’

The SX racket is a great all round racket though that will just help you generate some extra spin and that will help your consistency anyway, as Jimmy finds out as he fires a winner at the end with pin point accuracy,

FX

The FX Series is the Dunlop power series. F stands for Force. This is a series that Jimmy Arias has played with and crucially there is an interesting reason for this. ‘As I get older, I have less racket speed’. It may not be just for those getting older, it’s also really useful for younger players too but more than that it might just be that you don’t have a very attacking game, your swing is slow and defensive and a power racket can really add some zip to your shots.

LX

The LX series is the Lite series and comes in 800 and 1000. This is a very lite racket, aimed mainly at older players who need a very easy to maneuver racket that offers lots of power as their swing becomes slower and shorter. Someone who still has the racket head speed of Jimmy Arias for example might have a hard time controlling the deepness of the shot and it’s exactly how it pans out for Jimmy’s play test ‘Even if I don’t swing that hard, the ball still got onto her in a hurry’. It’s a great racket if you don’t want to do any of the work, but it’s a great racket for finding your way in the game. It’s got a large head size with a large sweet spot, so you’ll miss less often. It has sonic core technology which is good for your arm and it generates the power for you.

Summary

In conclusion, there’s a lot to consider when picking a racket and a lot to consider when deciding what player you are. One thing this video doesn’t mention is that while you should be able to feel what type of player you are, there is no substitute for the racket feeling right in your hand and so the best avenue to go down is always to test the rackets if you can. However, it’s always nice to know which area to test in first.