Tennis Racquet Review - Wilson Six. One 95
May 6th, 2014
I have to say that this is one of the most disappointing offerings from Wilson in a very long time. I notice that a lot of Wilson pros are playing with racquets painted black these days with nothing to identify the product as Wilson except the iconic butt cap symbol. In recent weeks I have seen Roger Federer and Pete Sampras and various members of the Spanish Armada playing live on television or in recently recorded events with stealth Wilson tennis racquets. This frame and the incredibly poor design and manufacture process is no doubt a large part of the problem.
The Wilson Six.One 95 tennis racquet is supposed to be in the lineage of the old Pro Staff tennis racquets and then the 6.1 brand that sprung out of that tradition a few years ago. On casual inspection the frame looks promising. It has a 95 square inch head, is the standard 27 inches long and has am 18 x 20 string bed. The racquet weighs 12.3 ounces strung and has the heft of the usual Wilson player frame.Unfortunately that is all blue smoke and mirrors. This tennis racquet is a problem as soon as you start hitting with it. It feels very blocky, I had trouble getting any kind of whip feeling with my forehand, and I could simply never find a backhand groundstroke groove with this frame. It is thicker than many Wilson frames and feels even thicker than it looks. Oddly enough for a Wilson racquet it is a bit of a launch-pad.
I have to go back to the old Wilson Hammer tennis racquet series to think of a Wilson tennis racquet that was both so overpowered and unwieldy to hit with. On top of not being happy with my ability to do any kind of serious ball striking with this racquet, my arm started hurting after practicing serves with this racquet for 15 or 20 minutes. And practicing is the right term exactly. I certainly wasn’t able to produce much control or spin on my serves with this racquet; and both my slice and flat balls were consistently 2-3 inches long and\or wide.
I think that I can volley with anything, but this racquet put that arrogant outlook to the test. I couldn’t slice or cut volleys to save my life with this racquet. I could bang the thing deep, but when is that going to be good enough against defenders with big spin games? I was just not a happy camper hitting with this racquet. I don’t know what is going on at Wilson, but I wouldn’t even recommend that serious players demo this frame. I would give it a pass, if only so it doesn’t bias you against other Wilson products. I was beyond disappointed with this effort by Wilson.
Marc Pinckney
