hey guys in today's video i'm going to be reviewing the most expensive racket and the least
expensive racket now before i get fact checked the most expensive racket in the world is actually not
the racket i'm holding here which is the wilson rf97 this racket is priced at 279 and i'm going
to call it the most expensive racket that players actually play with there are rackets that are more
expensive for example on tennis warehouse right now there's a racket on sale that's autographed
by roger federer that's 75 hundred dollars there's a chanel racket that's twenty five hundred dollars
there's a bosworth racket there's four hundred dollars there's even a lacoste racket three
hundred dollars and of course the most expensive racket of all time is the diamond tennis racket
priced at 1.2 million dollars that was given out at the old tournament in antwerp where
if you won that tournament three times you would get a tennis racket made completely out
of diamonds that's worth 1.2 million dollars however in today's video we're talking about
the most expensive racket that is used by a wide variety of high level players
and recreational players and that is for sure the wilson rf 97 priced at 279 dollars and look
guys i tried really hard to find the cheapest racket possible and where do you go if you want
to get the cheapest prices you go to walmart and indeed i found a racket there for 14.97
so basically 15 for a racket you can't get much cheaper than that and the type of rackets that
you will find at walmart or target and you'll find wilson you'll even find babolat you'll find head
rackets but these are not rackets you're going to find at tennis retail shops online or actually
brick and mortar tennis retail shops these rackets that you will find at walmart or target by these
big brands are actually specifically made for those stores and these rackets are made
out of aluminum and that's why they can be sold so cheap so this is not a graphite racket this is an
aluminum racket and indeed it is the cheapest racket that i could find by wilson for 14.97
and in today's video we're gonna test these two rackets out now guys the rf97 happens to be
the racket that i see the most at the recreational level i get a lot of players
who come to see me for lessons and i would easily say that 5 out of 10 show up with this racquet in
their hand so the question that i always ask them is the following are you playing with the wilson
rf97 because you like it or are you playing with it because roger federer plays with it
now this is the v13 rf-97 autograph version that's 340 grams which is incredibly heavy
just hitting balls like this yes the racket swings through the air nicely it's a nice
soft buttery feel to the ball but it is a heavy racket and it's going to
be interesting when i start hitting harder how my arm is going to respond to the weight
and the strings are also very important of course and in here i have
the setup that a lot of pros use including roger federer which is natural gut and luxilon alu power
and guys i only hit two serves with this racket and for you
they don't know i play with the babolat pure drive extended version and i can already tell there's a
huge difference in power between the racket that that i use and this racket on the serve which
doesn't mean that this racket doesn't have power on the serve i'm sure that other players can
execute a tremendous amount of power on the serve using this racket but me personally i don't get as
much out of the racket i need the racket to help me out a little bit so i can already tell there's
a reduction in power when we're talking about me personally okay here we go now comes a big test
all right good first rally i gotta say for feel this racket is absolutely phenomenal my slice
feels so sharp with this racquet it's almost like a federer slice
i've got to say the feeling on the forehand i would describe it as a trampoline feeling
the racket is very flexible so it's almost like
a catapult when you hit the ball hard it feels as if the racket is going back and then snapping into
the ball something that's completely different on my racket it's a very stiff racket so the power
is delivered completely different on the rf97 compared to the babolat pure drive
definitely not only reduction in speed on my serve but i also
feel it in my shoulder a little bit there's a
big power differential with this racket and definitely i'm feeling less power on the serve
also the way the racket is traveling through the air
is at a much slower rate which requires a faster arm so for example that approach shot
the ball was low i had to flick it up and i felt like i wasn't able to pick
flick it up as fast simply because the racket is much heavier 250 grams versus my racket
is 300 grams so it felt like a reduction in racket speed when the arm has to do more work
and guys let's talk about one another important aspect of this racket
and that is the 97 square inch head the norm these days is either 98 or 100 so
this is slightly smaller than what's most commonly used these days i do think it plays a factor
while i used to play with the 95 square inch for many many years i've gotten quite used
to 100 square inch racket head i do feel like it provides a lot of advantages by
increasing your sweet spot and being more forgiving on miss hits and off center shots
sorry sorry my bad and speaking of off-center shots i hit a couple of off-center forehands
there with very little power that's what a heavy racket a flexible racket like this
will give you a disadvantage because when you hit the ball off center since the racket is so
flexible you're not going to get much out of the racket when you play with a racket that's stiffer
even off-center swings are going to be firm and you're going to be able to generate power so this
type of racket does require you to hit the ball very clean right in the center of the sweet spot
okay that was a decent serve but still i feel like
getting a lot less heat on my serve with this racket
okay that was the best serve i hit so far it was pretty good but i feel like the wind
helped me out a little bit just started blowing really fast right behind me
i still feel like i didn't swing very fast on that serve let me try kick serve on this one
okay that forehand was pretty decent
yeah i just feel like the racket is not going through the air fast at all
definitely a reduction and speed very hard to maneuver this weight for me which begs
the question if i'm having a hard time with it maybe you guys at the recreational level are
going to have a very hard time with this racket as well and you're going to be held back in your development
another thing that i find difficult with this racket is two-handed backhand
and in fact i can't think of many players that use this racket that use a two-handed backhand so it's
for me it feels more like a one-handed backhand racket i feel like this racket needs the freedom
of a longer more continuous swing i feel like the two handed backhand
is too little range of motion for this weight to be effective
okay that was probably the best serve and the best forehand so far but i do feel like i hit both
crisps so here's the deal so far the most expensive racket in the world
when you hit the ball clean right in the middle of the sweet spot you're good but you're off if
you're a little bit off center off the sweet spot you're going to have a hard time okay on
the return of serve we're going to see how this racket performs it's going to be interesting
okay
again i hit that super clean super crips crisp so when the contact
point is good this racket is phenomenal there's absolutely no doubt about that
and see there perfect example i hit the ball towards the top of the frame because i didn't get
out of the way fast enough it was a bad setup and i got absolutely nothing off center that is the
problem with this racket my second server is going to be interesting i want to try to blast this one
again good return but again i felt like i was positioned well i hit it clean
i got a good response from that okay guys now i'm going to try to
chip my return roger federer style let's see how this racket performs
oh goodness into the ground all right let's try it again go again milan
oh goodness gracious all right here's the deal guys when it comes to the chip I figured it
out right away what the problem is so i'm chipping like i would with my babolat and with my babolat
the very stiff frame all i have to do is just block the chip absorb the chip here there's a lot
of flexibility in the racket so again the catapult effect ever wondered why federer on his slices
has quite a large swing i think part of the reason is his racket because you can't get away with just
doing this whether it be the volley or the chip return you are going to have to take a little bit
larger swing because if you just block it the racket goes too far back and you lose control
pretty drastically let me try one more i'm going to increase the swing radius on my chip
there we go and right away it's better yeah so definitely there's a lot of factors that
need to be adjusted when playing with the rf97 okay last return i'm gonna try to blast it again
here's the deal guys a lot of recreational players choose this racket not because they necessarily
like it but rather because roger federer plays with it of course any racket recommendation any
racket test if you've seen some of my previous videos it's very individual everybody's going
to have a different body everybody's going to have a different game style
and most importantly everybody's going to have a different muscle memory however having said that
i do feel like this is a difficult racket to maneuver if i had difficulty with this racket i'm
a high level player and of course you guys at the recreational level are going to have a hard time
with it as well the racket in this configuration with the 340 grams it does require you to hit the
ball a specific way it does require good hands it requires good timing it requires a larger
radius of the swing if you have short swings this racket is going to be difficult to play with and
most importantly this racquet requires a clean contact if you're someone who lacks good footwork
if you're someone who lacks making clean contact with the ball if you're often hitting it towards
the frame this is definitely not a racket that you should be choosing so the price tag of 279 dollars
has nothing to do with the quality of the racket of course this is a one of the greatest rackets
of all time in my top five rackets of all-time video i ranked this racket at number one it has
a long history it has the most grand slams won by far pete sampras used it an older version
of course and roger federer used this racket as well so it is a phenomenal racket for the right
player but the big question is should you guys at the recreational level be spending 279 dollars
to get the best racket there is maybe that's what's in your mind you should absolutely not not
be doing that because the price has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the racket
because the racket has to suit your game style it has to suit your genetic predispositions and
it has to absolutely match your muscle memory now it's going to get interesting because i'm
going to be testing out the 14 dollar racket the cheapest racket in the world and let's see how it performs
i gotta say that this serve was very zippy i did not control that backhand too well but we can
also blame that on my footwork because i didn't move my feet at all but surprisingly that serve
was zippier than with the rf97 no joke
interesting another great serve very surprising um
not so much control on that forehand but i also want to add that the strings that are in
this are absolutely horrendous this is wilson nylon okay a very low quality string probably
the cheapest string on the market so we're going to put that into consideration as well
ace 14 dollar ace come on
another ace with the 14 dollars that's 28 dollars so far worth of aces this is insane what's happening
right here guys are you seeing this you guys sometimes will say tennis is the most expensive
sport to play i don't know about that i spent 15 bucks and i'm serving aces
oh guys that forehand did not feel bad at all and that butter soft touch afterwards
i'm starting to like this
see that action on there
i'm not going to say i'm switching to this racket but i'm
considering it because i'm playing there's some good tennis right now
oh but it wasn't the racket's fault i should have moved my feet a little more a good rally anyway
that's huge come on
another ace come on i'm definitely serving
too good with this racket i'm not getting any rallies let me do some
some second serves so i can get into some rallies to give this racket a little bit more of a test
impeccable angle created with my backhand for the low cost of 14.95 all right one more point
again absolutely phenomenal the way i'm playing
for this super affordable racket another great forehand i got that this racket
feels really good i like the head size let's see how it feels on the return
okay i sprayed that a little bit but not too bad of a miss
absolutely amazing racket i got to tell you guys i am so positively surprised and now joking aside
i'm being 100 serious when you say tennis is an expensive sport you're a beginner you're trying
to hit a few balls back and forth you go to walmart and get yourself on these rackets
for 15 bucks and this is absolutely adequate for the entry level this is a racket that's perfectly
fine to use and now in all seriousness how does the cheap racket compare to the expensive racket
it doesn't because the material that is used in the cheap racket is aluminum and i swear i can
already feel that the racket is bent a little bit so if i keep playing with this racket it
it's going to start bending really bad and also the strings that are in this racket are
a very low quality string for that reason this is not a racket can be sustained when you play even
at the intermediate level or especially not at the advanced recreational level and forget about
the high level high level players have way too much power to be able to play with an aluminum
racket so the graphite that is used now on all rackets has been used for quite some time for
more than 30 years is a big game changer because this material is much more sustainable you can hit
the ball a lot much harder the stability is a lot better so simply based on materials this racket
of course does not compare to this racket so if you are an absolute beginner and you want to just
get started with tennis this racket is absolutely fine and whoever tells you that tennis
is an expensive sport it's not true you can get this racket for 15 bucks you can grab yourself
a can of balls for three bucks you can go out on a court somewhere at a public park
if you happen to live in the united states you can play tennis for very cheap and then as you get
better of course you will have to invest a little bit of money into some better equipment as you get
to the intermediate recreational level you have to grab yourself a graphite racket and it doesn't
have to be 279 dollars you can get a discontinued model you can go on ebay and get a really quality
racket for i would say between 50 and 100 dollars you can get yourself an excellent racket so guys tennis
does not have to be expensive and also a very important thing that we realized today that
the most expensive thing is not always the best thing and it's not going to suit every player