Breakdown

Groundstrokes: 8.3

During baseline exchanges, our testing team found the 2025 Dunlop FX 500 to be consistently powerful with better-than-expected feel. Although the playtesters noted a slight tendency to overhit, most of the time the racquet did an excellent job at bringing the ball back down into the court thanks to its spin potential. For Brittany, the 2025 FX 500 felt familiar and offered easy power depth and spin. She noted, "Having playtested the last two generations of the FX 500, I felt pretty confident I was going to like this update. For one, the specs are in my wheelhouse and are very user-friendly, also known as the perfect 'tweener spec. From the baseline, the Dunlop FX 500 delivers easy power, depth and spin. This allowed me to play aggressively and really go after my shots with extra pace. As I expected, it is easy to overhit at times due to all the power, so adding a little spin was effective and easy to do. I found myself playing from the baseline and taking control of points. When I was hitting defensive shots I appreciated being able to get the ball back deep to stay in a neutral position."

Tiffani noted the new FX 500's ability to hit big across a variety of shots from the baseline. She explained, "If you're familiar with previous FX 500s, there's not going to be much of a transition to this update. The playability hasn't changed much at all, and the difference to me was the feel. I thought this updated FX 500 had an overall dampened feel, yet I was still able to get enough ball feedback. For players who haven't tried this series yet, I would say expect power and expect easy net clearance. The string spacing is quite open compared to some other 16x19, 100-square-inch racquets, including the Babolat Pure Drive. I played my best with this racquet at a comfortable rally pace. If I got into a 'bash the ball' contest, which isn't really my game anyway, I would often be lured into overhitting because this FX 500 delivers such a powerful response. I'd venture to say that this racquet is even more responsive than the Pure Drive up high in the stringbed. I noticed the pop was still there when I was catching the ball just above the sweetspot."

Jason found excellent power on each and every one of his groundstrokes with the 2025 FX 500, which let him lean into his aggressive baseline game. He said, "This racquet really helped me add some pop to my groundies, though it did take a small acclimation period for me to adjust my game to the extra power. Luckily, there is an open string pattern that helps reel in the power with topspin, and I found I could whip the racquet around pretty easily. The plus side was the easy depth and net clearance I was getting on my shots. The downside was the depth control wasn't the easiest for me."

The 2025 FX 500 felt extremely powerful to Zsofi, perhaps too powerful at times. She explained, "The theme of this playtest for me was easy power. Just like the previous version, this racquet really shines when it comes to power, so creating depth from the baseline was no issue at all! I did feel like this update was a bit more launchy than the previous generation, and because of that I had to pick some safer targets. However, I felt more comfortable after a few hours of adjusting to this racquet. To my surprise, spin was easy to come by. Even if this is not necessarily a spin racquet, it was still an aspect of this frame that I really enjoyed. I will say that this update feels just a tad bit stiffer than the previous version, and the previous version felt a bit more comfortable, although some players might enjoy the stiffer frame more. This 2025 FX 500 is relatively stable, but I would love to add a few grams to the racquet head to make it even more stable for my playing style. Then I could trust it a bit more with some of my more aggressive shots."

Volleys: 8.2

Our team found volleying with the FX 500 to be a bit of a mixed bag. For some, the easy power let them go after heavier volleys with ease. For others, the lack of control meant touch volleys were harder to pull off. Such was the case for Zsofi, who normally relies heavily on her touch and finesse when at the net. She explained, "I found the new FX 500 to be maneuverable at the net, and I had easy depth on my volleys. However, off-center shots didn't feel too comfortable, and I didn't really trust the racquet enough to go for my signature touch volleys. On the other hand, when I got a ball that was just floating in the air and I had to put the ball away aggressively, this racquet really shone."

Jason felt comfortable going for aggressive point-ending volleys with the FX 500, powering through his overheads and high volleys. He said, "I could hit pretty solid volleys with this racquet. It has a crisp response that made me feel well connected to my shots. The easy power was helpful for putting away easy sitters and overheads. I didn't find the lack of control to be quite as apparent up at net as it was from the baseline."

Brittany leaned into her drive volleys and found more success with heavier shots. She described, "Up at net, the 2025 FX 500 was easy to maneuver and get into position. I found I was hitting most of my volleys deep in the court to end points. I wasn't fully dialed into the touch because I felt the ball came in and out of the stringbed quicker. However, my strength is my punch volley, so I had no problem relying on that. And I'll give a special shoutout to the 2025 FX 500 on swinging volleys."

Tiffani seemed to have a better experience at the net than the rest of the team. She noted, "This FX 500 has the right blend of maneuverability and stability for me at net, and it responded well to pace. I like to punch my volleys most of the time, and this racquet delivered the power to help me put the ball away. Still, there was enough stability to bleed off some pace to drop the ball short as well. I don't really have any complaints at net."

Serves: 8.4

Across the board, serving with the FX 500 earned high marks and praise from all of our testers. Thanks to the reliable pop the 2025 FX 500 was adding to Tiffani's serves, this ended up being her favorite category of the playtest. She said, "Ah, serve -- it's the shot I'm constantly trying to 'fix.' I took this racquet out a few times for serve practice, and I have to say, it's my favorite shot to hit with the 2025 FX 500. I put this racquet up there with the Babolat Pure Drive in terms of easy power on serve. I was seeing higher pace on average, even compared to some other racquets in the power category. Likewise, I found spin easy to access, and I hit some pretty effective slice serves on the deuce side. I still wasn't blowing my serves past anyone, but I was pleased to see improvements."

When it was Brittany's turn to start the point, the 2025 FX 500 could handle everything she asked of it and more. She noted, "I actually really enjoyed serving with the Dunlop FX 500 more than the normal racquet. It did everything I needed it to do. It was easy to get up and over my head and generate racquet head speed, and I was able to maintain a high level of serving over the course of an intense practice or match. There was plenty of easy power if I wanted to hit a flat first serve (my favorite being wide on the ad side), but I could also rely on the spin to hit my second serve. I could really get the ball to kick out of my opponent's strike zone so they weren’t able to attack as easily."

The FX 500 encouraged Jason to go after heavier serves, both in terms of pace and spin. He explained, "Serving with this 2025 FX 500 was quite enjoyable. I was getting more power on my serves than normal, and it made it really fun to see how hard I could hit my serve. The open string pattern helped me hit consistent and effective slice serves.”

Zsofi also had a good experience serving with this 2025 FX 500, making the serve the largest area of consensus on this playtest. She said, "I enjoyed hitting serves with this racquet! My second serves felt especially good, and I was able to tap into some extra pop for them. I could create some nice angles, and I especially enjoyed opening up the court with some wide second serves."

Returns: 8.1

Our playtesters found that the 2025 FX 500 was prone to sending returns past the baseline a little more easily than they would have liked. That said, when they could get a rein on all that power, our testers were able to hit some very aggressive returns. Zsofi, who prefers to step in and attack from the get-go on returns, noted some struggles in this category. She described, "I do like to step into my returns and make quick work of them if I can! That approach worked well for this racquet most of the time, as long as I was able to hit the ball in the sweetspot. However, even just slight off-center shots punished me greatly, and I had a tendency to launch my returns a bit too high. I especially noticed this on my backhand slice returns (I hit them as a defensive shot a lot), and they sailed on me quite a few times."

Comparatively, Jason had an easier time tapping into the 2025 FX 500's power potential, finding consistent depth with his returns. He said, "Was it fun to try and blast return winners? Yes. Did I perhaps back-fence a few returns? Also yes. With the amount of power I could generate, I was definitely trying to be the aggressor on my returns."

The 2025 FX 500 worked quite well for Brittany's favorite shot, the return. She explained, "I was able to start off points aggressively on the return. The racquet was easy to maneuver around my body and get into place even when I was facing the fastest first serves. It was also very easy to get the ball back deep to my opponent's baseline. Just like with groundstrokes, I needed to add a little spin to keep from overhitting on both first and second serve returns."

Tiffani struggled at times with consistency on returns, but she enjoyed the easy depth the 2025 FX 500 gave her. She said, "I played around with my tactics when returning with the 2025 FX 500. I settled in on standing farther back to return first serves to give myself time to add topspin. Like on groundstrokes, there was a definite temptation to try to crush the ball, and that just wasn't consistent enough for me. I really liked stepping in and taking the ball early on second serves to use the easy power to my advantage. I could really get myself into an offensive position on returns, both first and second, but the trick was to do it consistently."

Breakdown Summary