Tested racket:
Brand: Babolat Model: Pure Drive 2018 Headsize: 100 sq/inch Weight: 300 gr Balance: 32.0 cm Stringing pattern: 16/19 Length: 27 inch RA: 71 Stringing: Babolat RPM Team 1.25 on 23/22 kg The Babolat Pure Drive 2018 is now available in our webshop!
Tester:
Name: Mike Playing strength: 4/4 Type of player: somewhat classic player, flat groundstrokes, generates little spin himself. Had shoulder problems until recently. Racket history player: Head Ti Fire, Babolat Pure Drive, Prince EXO3 Rebel Team, Wilson Steam 100 BLX2, Head Graphene Radical MP and the Prince Textreme Warrior 107. Recently also the Babolat Pure Strike 16/19 2017 in use.Technology Babolat Pure Drive 2018:
The latest version of the Pure Drive has not only received fresh cosmetics. The racket has also been given a number of technical adjustments. First of all, the well-known Woofer technology from Babolat is now fully integrated into the frame, just like in the latest version of the Pure Aero . With this technology, the strings lie over saddles, as it were. At ball impact, these give way for more energy, spin potential and an enlargement of the sweet spot. Cortex gets an upgrade to Cortex Pure Feel . Cortex Pure Feel is incorporated into the shaft of the racket. With Cortex Pure Feel, a thin layer of visco-elastic rubber is incorporated into the material mix of the shaft. This technology provides more vibration damping and thus a purer, more stable playing feel.
FSI Power is not new in itself: the new Babolat Pure Strike series also uses this technology. However, it is now being applied for the first time in the Pure Drive series. The previous Pure Drive had the strings in the sweet spot a bit more compactly packed together for some extra control and connection with the ball. With the Babolat Pure Drive 2018, Babolat is returning to the roots of the Pure Drive as 'the power machine'. The racket has the same 16/19 stringing pattern, but the strings are, as it were, pulled apart more. This provides more power and a larger sweet spot. The ball rotation is also a bit easier thanks to this FSI Power. This results in more power, even with off-center hits. The tubings have also been adjusted for more freedom of movement of the strings. These tubings are now hexagonal. In the past, I have also played the Babolat Pure Drive. I have also tested the previous version ( Pure Drive 2015 ). In this playtest I also took this 'old' version of the Pure Drive with me for a comparison of both frames.
Baseline:
The Babolat Pure Drive 2018 plays wonderfully solid from the baseline. The new Pure Drive performs well all over the court, but I like it best from the baseline. What I noticed is that the racket feels more solid at ball impact than the previous Pure Drive. This gives you better feedback from the racket, but above all a more consistent playing feel. Whether this is due to the Cortex Pure Feel and/or a more homogeneous RA value (stiffness) of the frame, I don't know. The racket simply feels more solid. This was also noticeable with my slice backhands. It was very easy to bring the mass of the frame through the ball. Good plow-through, as it is so nicely called.
The spin and power also came out a bit easier for me. With my somewhat flatter groundstrokes, an extra bit of ball rotation and therefore margin is nice for my game. Maybe I could place a bit more precisely with the previous Pure Drive, but in terms of power and spin the Pure Drive 2018 definitely wins. Also striking is the ball feel. The new Pure Drive has more touch than its predecessor in my opinion. I have hit a few very nice drop shots with it.
Service:
My sensitive shoulder can sometimes play up when serving. That's partly why I chose my current Prince Textreme Warrior 107. I noticed that I had to put in a bit more effort to put speed into the ball with this new Pure Drive, but that's more my problem than the racket. I experienced the service power as more than sufficient. What is noticeable is that the grip on the ball has improved. I could more easily produce a slice and/or kick serve. My slice serve on the right to the outside (I'm right-handed) in particular went very well.Just:
Nice! Another point where I could clearly notice the improved stability of the frame was at the net. The racket feels nice and stable at ball impact. Hard balls are easy to process. What I liked most was that there is also a lot of feeling in the racket. I hit a few wonderful stop volleys with it, where I always had the feeling that I knew exactly what the ball was going to do.
Power/control:
The power is so to speak abundantly present in the Babolat Pure Drive 2018. From the baseline it is nice to blast with this racket. The previous Pure Drive perhaps gave a little more precision in terms of placement because of the denser mesh of the strings in the sweet spot. Still, I find the overall control of the new Pure Drive better. The racket feels more stable, as in that it twists less. As a result, I found the racket to perform more consistently. You get better feedback on how you hit the ball. This is also nice for players who want to grow. But the racket simply feels more stable at ball impact.Comfort/arm friendliness:
Always a point of attention for me! I like the comfort of the new Pure Drive. Because the racket twists less, there is less shock load. I don't really know whether Cortex Pure Feel itself also dampens more, but the overall vibration dampening of the frame was nice. I tested this racket with a full bed (length - and width) polyester string. This Babolat RPM team is the less stiff and therefore slightly more comfortable brother of the well-known RPM Blast. This string worked fine with the new Pure Drive. You could give the racket even more comfort, by a hybrid string setup with, for example, polyester in the length with a synthetic gut or multifilament in the width. Infrequent string breakers can go for a multifilament or even better for a gut string for maximum comfort. With polyester strings or a hybrid, my advice would be not to go too high in terms of kilos because of the already stable character of the frame.
The Babolat Pure Drive 2018 is now available in our webshop!