Morning all,

My OH’S wants to buy a decent tennis racket as a gift for her sister who had just passed her driving test.

Trouble is neither of us happen to know a great deal them so don’t know what to look for or where.

Budget is guesstimated at £50, guessing carbon would be good for strength/weight?

What does the hive suggest?

My OHs recommendation is to chose one in the Wilson range upto your budget. He says the most important thing is to get the correct grip size. His opinion was perhaps it ignore carbon for the price range you’re looking at and just to get something from a well branded company such as Wilson.

Mrs CFH is a fairly handy tennis player and she swears by Prince rackets. However, they suit the way she plays, etc.

In summary…

get something from a well branded company such as Wilson/Prince/Head/Babolat/Yonex.

Great stuff 🙂

Thanks for the replies, will check those out.

Another vote for Wilson. Have tried many, always return to Wilson stuff.

I would also look at Yonex purely based on the fact that Stan the Man uses one.

If her sister plays regularly don’t even go there, raquets are really personal and weight, balance, grip size vary massively. People usually test a few before choosing. If she just wants to bash on the public courts go for the nicest colour.

50 quid doesn’t get a good raquet unless it’s from sports direct (and a formerly good brand like Dunlop that’s been bought out).

Wilson are good, so are Head and Babolat. Grip size is important you can add an overgrip to size up but you can’t make it smaller. Weight is another important factor and wether it’s head heavy etc. Open string pattern gives more spin and power more closed pattern gives more control. Smaller head size gives less power. String type and tension very important. Less tension more comfort and power. Higher tension less power less comfort. I hate to say this but a decent racquet is at least £100-120. Most are carbon fibre these days. My son has been playing for 10yrs his racquets are about £300 for two on a multi buy deal. He is 14 and his racquet is about 290g. He needs new ones, these will be about 300-310g. Don’t expect to get the perfect racquet first time. It’s a bit like buying a bike saddle!

csb speaks the truth here. Imagine someone hears you’re a cyclist and wants to buy you a bike. What you propose is equivalent to going out and buying any budget bike from Trek/Spesh/Giant when you don’t know what size, weight, style of riding etc they prefer. If you’re set on a tennis gift then maybe a voucher from a specialist shop would be the way to go? If they’re even a semi-serious player they would probably spend £50 just on racquet strings…

Would normally agree with above about risks of buying racket for someone else. However, based on your brief comments one choice stands out

Head Ti S6 racket – one of the best selling rackets of all time and a classic for beginners and intermediate. Used to retail at around £150 but now easy to find in the £60 range. Incredibly easy to hit and very, very forgiving. My wife uses ine still and we keep one for guests as a one racket fits all safety net. I play a lot of tennis and have been known to use it too – hence my views on its versatility.