Wilson Blade 98 (18x20) v8 Tennis Racquet

Good power, stiffness is perfect, great balance. Weight is ideal for customizing. Put it this way, I purchased two of them a week after I demoed them. Blades are sick and the new v8 is superior.

For me this racquet was an upgrade from 2015 version of the Blade, and it was well worth it. While overall the racquet feels and plays similarly, it has slightly more weight and is slightly more headlight making it a bit more stable. Spin potential is also slightly improved. One very welcome improvement is a significantly reduced vibration, so I did not need to use a dampener any longer. With one the frame almost felt too muted. As one of the lighter frames out there Blade offers enough customization flexibility. Adding 1 gram of tungsten tape at both 3 and 9 o’clock and about 8 grams to the handle made it even more stable without reduced maneuverability. Adding more weight at 2 and 10 o’clock as some recommended for this frame felt to me like it moved the sweet spot too much but your mileage may vary. Overall, an excellent addition to the Blade family.

It’s a good racquet, but it’s not for me. Still, that shouldn’t lower the rating, as that’s a matter of preference, and I know several players who love how it feels. If you’ve used the v7 before, the v8 is virtually identical in every way save for one key difference: It is quite a bit stiffer. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it makes the racquet feel more stable, but the v7 flexes more, and for someone like me who uses 16g polys at high tension, the v8 feels a bit too much like hitting with a 2x4 without much feel. Nevertheless, I could see myself getting used to it and using it if I had no other choice, but the v7 feels just a little bit better for me.

Power and feel. Incredibly pleased.