Racquet Review: Wilson BLX Tour Limited

October 1st, 2011

When my friend whom I review racquets for handed me this racquet I started to tell him that I had already reviewed it. As much as I like being compensated in the free enterprise system it seems a little sketchy to be paid twice for doing the same work once. Then I realized that the racquet was slightly different, primarily it was a ‘Limited’ edition as opposed to a ‘Lite’ version of the BLX Tour. When I started to write this review I just copied the caption from the previous review as a placeholder, made a couple of changes and I was in business with regard to getting started on this review.

The feeling of ‘deja vu’ continued when I hit with the racquet; a frame that I really liked. The racquet presents as a serious player’s frame; non-standard 27.5 inch length, it weighs 11.1 ounces strung (although Wilson lists the unstrung weight on the side in what has become one of my personal indicators about competence and common sense in the tennis industry) and the head is a more or less common 95 square inches. The racquet feels very solid when you start to hit with it, the one thing I did not like about the design is that it is a little thicker than the player’s frames that Wilson has made through the years and I really felt as if I had to concentrate on accelerating the racquet head on ground strokes at first. After about 15 or 20 minutes of hitting with the racquet I was getting nice depth and spin and placement off both sides on my ground strokes, one couldn’t really ask for a better basic feel, although one should pay attention to the aforementioned thickness\acceleration issue when considering this racquet.

The frame is very easy to volley with and to hit specialty shots with. One of the kids I was teaching while I was using it was having overhead problems in her high school doubles matches lately, so we did an approach shot-volley-overhead drill for about 15 minutes during her lesson, and it was really easy to just flick lobs into the air form all kinds of positions with this racquet. The frame provides all kinds of easy power and I for sure had good feel while hitting with it. It was also a very easy racquet to serve with, which is not what I expected after the initial issues with racquet head acceleration in regard to my ground strokes.

Wilson markets this frame as being suitable for intermediate to advanced players who are looking to add spin and power to their game. And although this phrase has become the Wilson marketing mantra in the BLX period, I think that it fits pretty neatly here. I think that 4.5 on up players might find this racquet useful for their purposes. Players without a defined style and game should avoid it however, accelerating the racquet head to get through the ball is not the A plan for people still developing their game. But with that caveat I think this is a nice entry in the Wilson line.

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