Prince Ripstick 100 (300g) Racket Review

Groundstrokes - Score: 84

From the back of the court, our playtesters found that the Ripstick 100 300g provided excellent access to spin and power. Tiffani said, "Grip it and rip it! And I'm not just saying that because it's called Ripstick; this racquet is a powerhouse. I instantly found loads of power off the ground with the Ripstick 100. I hit a pretty flat ball, so at first, I also found myself hitting long past the baseline and had to adjust. The racquet felt faster than the measured 325 swingweight to me, and I appreciated that since I needed to use all the spin I could to help keep the ball within the lines. I tried several string setups, and my favorite was a shaped co-poly. I felt that really enhanced the spin, and the O Ports helped keep the racquet plenty comfortable with a full bed of poly installed. Although my topspin shots felt dialed in once I settled on a string setup, I wasn't getting my slice shots to consistently stay low. I like to mix slice into my game, but with this racquet, I felt that 'pedal-to-the-metal' tennis was more effective. Staying in long points with this racquet was more difficult than I’m used to since it's focused on power and spin rather than control. It's not my game style, but it was fun to mix it up and go for winners more often."

Jason agreed with Tiffani's comment on the power and spin, and he had to be careful not to overhit. He said, "This racquet packs a punch! I found that I needed a bit of an acclimation period to not only get used to the more muted feel but also the higher launch angle and power. Depth was easy to come by on my groundstrokes — at times, a bit too easy. If I wasn't conscious about adding topspin, I was overhitting. And while the racquet offered excellent pop, I found it to be slightly more sluggish than anticipated, which not only hindered maneuverability, but control as well."

While Erik also noted a lack of maneuverability in the Ripstick 100 300g, he felt that its power, stability and spin access kept him in charge of points. He described, "I found this racquet to offer really nice spin and depth. I could really rip up the back of the ball with this racquet, and it would stay within the lines with tons of spin. Slices were extremely nice to hit with the Ripstick thanks to its weight. There was more power than control, but the spin that this racquet offered allowed for added control on my shots. The racquet was quite stable in my hands, and I could redirect pace easily and keep my opponents deep. The racquet was a little harder to maneuver, and I would want to tail weight it to make it slightly whippier. Overall, the Ripstick 100 300g was super solid, and I felt like I could really swing out and hit a heavy ball when required."

Volleys - Score: 84

With its solid stability, the Ripstick 100 300g performed excellently for our playtesters at the net, but there were mixed reviews on the muted feel. Jason appreciated the stability of the racquet at net, but he wasn't a huge fan of the feel. He said, "With a higher swingweight than you'd find in most 300-gram racquets, the Ripstick 100 felt more solid and stable than expected. Although there was great access to spin, I didn't love the feel, which was too dampened for me."

Tiffani enjoyed how the racquet performed at net as well. She explained, "I was pleased overall with the racquet as I moved forward. I appreciated the more muted feel here since mis-hit volleys felt less jarring. The Ripstick 100 felt maneuverable and stable in most instances, and I got good put-away power to end points effectively."

The net was Erik's favorite place to be with the Ripstick. He said, "I really liked hitting volleys with this racquet. I could hit nice deep volleys with lots of feel. The racquet was quite comfortable, but I thought it was a little bit muted overall — nothing too extreme, just dampened. That being said, the ball always went where I wanted it to go. The racquet was quite stable and solid in my hands for the weight, and I was very comfortable absorbing the pace of hard shots coming at me."

Serves - Score: 85

The Ripstick 100 300g's power and spin helped our playtesters hit strong serves. Erik enjoyed the easy depth and spin he found with this frame. He said, "This racquet was really nice on serves. I could load up the ball with a lot of spin and hit deep serves with controllable power. If I needed to bring the ball in and be conservative, I certainly could do that. My second serves were very controlled as well. My favorite serves were body or flat T on the deuce side and kick out wide on the ad side."

Jason really liked the power he could generate thanks to the added swingweight. He explained, "I was able to get plenty of pop on my serves. I didn't mind the muted feel or the higher swingweight as much here. I felt like the high-320 swingweight helped make my serve a bit more potent, and with such an open string pattern, getting tons of spin on my serves was effortless."

Tiffani was a fan of the Ripstick 100's free power on serves as well. She said, "There was good power and spin on tap for serves. I didn't get a massive boost in the power department like I did from the baseline, but I still thought the racquet was giving me good pace and adequate spin to get into a point. I actually preferred serving with this racquet to returning, which is usually not the case."

Returns - Score: 83

The power, spin and stability of the Ripstick 100 300g were standout characteristics once again when our playtesters were returning serves. Jason found himself overhitting a bit, but he liked the results when he got it right on his returns. He said, "Much like with my groundstrokes, making sure I added topspin to my shots was key. I was struggling with overhitting when swinging out, but when I was able to get ahold of one, the results were amazing — so much spin and power and depth! On defensive returns, my blocked shots landed with good depth."

Erik really enjoyed the stability of the Ripstick on returns, though he would have liked just a bit more maneuverability. He said, "This racquet was really stable when blocking back returns. At times it was harder to maneuver, so I would want to add some weight to the handle, but it handled pace with ease. It was easy to hit deep returns with lots of margin over the net."

Tiffani found the power to be quite addicting on her returns, and she had to be careful not to get too carried away. She described, "It was a bit too much of a good thing when it came to returns. When added spin and made solid contact, I could hit deep, aggressive returns. However, I found it easy to go for too much and worked to dial back my returns to find the court. I was missing my returns long a lot when I first started playing games with this Ripstick."

Overall - Score: 82