Babolat Pure Strike Tour 3rd Gen Racket Review

Off the ground, hitting with the Pure Strike Tour was an intense experience. It is a racket that makes you work for your rewards.

You have to be in the right place at the right time to use this racket to its full potential, since its weight and swing weight mean it will not give you much power for free.

It took me a bit of time to get dialed in with this racket.

I am the type of player that likes to work my way into a play test, starting off a bit slower then ramping up the intensity over time.

This wasn’t the best approach with the Pure Strike Tour. You want to be warmed up and ready to go from the off with this racket.

When you are swinging freely through the ball it does really reward your inputs.

The open string pattern and high swing weight allow you to clobber the ball and generate a lot of heavy spin on topspin forehands and backhands as well as slices.

However, if you are out of position or miss-time the ball, the racket can’t do much to help you.

That being said, the additional mass did mean that even flicking a passing shot had a lot of weight to it.

So in reality, this was a good racket for counterpunching as well as dominating from the beeline and being aggressive.

I felt that I hit my heavy topspin forehand particularly well with this racket.

As someone who sometimes struggles to commit to hitting my forehand aggressively, I found that the do or die nature of the Pure Strike Tour really encouraged me to be proactive and go for it!

The stand out feature of this racket was the accuracy that it offers thanks to that slightly smaller 98 Sq in. frame.

The new C2 Pure Feel technology also helps to dampen any excess vibrations that the racket may generate, which makes the experience of striking one out the middle all the more enjoyable!

This means you can really cover the ball with confidence and it will pocket in the string bed, allowing you to take big cuts at the ball with confidence, even with such a heavy racket.

Overall, the racket felt firm, crisp and stable.

I was able to lean in to my shots and attack the ball with confidence.

It felt as though the ball was coming back with less pace from the other side of the court, as my hitting partner struggled to deal with the extra weight of shot the Pure Strike Tour allowed me to generate.

Therefore, if you like taking big cuts at the ball and want a racket that will reward your efforts, the Tour is a great choice for you.

Of all the tour variants in the Babolat range, the Pure Strike is the most control oriented of the bunch.

It offers a more dampened and neutral feel when compared to the Pure Drive Tour or Pure Aero Tour.

The means it is that much more usable when it comes to putting away crisp volleys or using touch and feel shots around the net.

Naturally, the hefty weight of this racket did make it a bit more challenging to maneuver, so at times I struggled to get the racket behind the ball as quickly as I’d like to.

This meant I had to be very alert and switched on when reacting quickly to a fast oncoming ball.

That being said, when I was able to get the racket into position nice and early it felt great to volley with.

The control frame technology really shone through when I needed that stability to put away fast oncoming balls.

Plus, when I needed to push the ball deep on a low volley when approaching the net, the Pure Strike Tour more than stood up to the task.

It was crisp and feelsome, yet dampened so I felt comfortable.

Serving with a heavier stick can be a challenge, particularly as you begin to tire.

This is something I have found consistently when playing with performance focussed rackets.

Whilst they are great at offering you great access to power and plow through, they can sometimes be demanding on the body.

This was the case to a certain extent with the Pure Strike Tour, but I found the accuracy and spin that the racket allowed me to generate more than made up for this.

The ball really jumped off the strings and I felt I was rewarded for the extra effort I was putting in, the racket felt stable and well balanced on contact, whilst giving me a few extra MPHs in the process!

I tend to prefer a more weighty racket to return serve with, as these rackets make it slightly easier to redirect power whilst remaining stable and solid on contact.

Therefore, the Pure Strike Tour from Babolat played right into my wheelhouse!

It was fantastic for managing my opponent’s big first serve, as I felt I could stand closer to the baseline and block the ball back deep on both the forehand and backhand wings.

The racket gave me the confidence to step in and take on the second serve returns, as I knew I could trust it to remain rock solid when direct the ball exactly where I wanted it to go.

Therefore, I absolutely loved returning with the Pure Strike Tour, especially for how early I could take the ball!

In summary, the Babolat Pure Strike Tour was a great racket to hit with.

It is aimed at the more experienced and advanced players out there that are looking for a nice solid, stable racket with good weighting and a responsive string bed.

The racket also delivered good control and feel, two things that you certainly look for as an advanced player.

Whilst its weight did at times make it difficult to react quickly with, the flip side of that meant I could generate a lot of power and spin even when just flicking the racket at the ball.

Overall, this racket was a crisp one that is a great choice for a player seeking that ultimate stability and plow through on their shots.