One of the most popular racquets among promising juniors and more advanced players of late has been the Wilson Blade. Wilson has managed to find that nice blend between control and power in a racquet that is relatively easy to play with but also not too harsh on your arm, which could be the case with a Babolat Pure Aero for example.

Most popular racquet models are updated every two years and a few months ago Wilson released their new Blade line – this time including Countervail technology. Countervail is meant to reduce shock and according to sources top Canadian player Milos Raonic will be using Countervail in his Blade racquets.

Countervail is vibration-cancelling technology that is also used in Bianchi bicycles. Whether it works well in tennis racquets is hard to tell, although our customers who play-test the new models talk about increased comfortability despite a higher RA rating (Countervail Blades measured at an RA of 65 while the BLX Blade model measured at an RA of 64).

Since the previous version played so well and was so well received by many,  it must have been difficult for Wilson to find a way to improve it. Maybe more users had legitimate concern about the Blade’s stiffness which motivated Wilson to devise a way to dampen the harshness?

According to my customers who have taken our new Blade demos to play test, this new Countervail version of the Wilson Blade 98 succeeds in making it a more comfortable racquet.

The new Wilson Blade 98 Countervail is one of the best racquets to have been released this year. Wilson did a nice job offering this new racquet in a variety of options which include a choice of string patterns to choose from: 18×20, 16×19 and the lighter S version with 18×16.

Another difference in this new model is a slight increase in swing weight. Since the Wilson Blades aren’t overly heavy racquets, this racquet offers the perfect platform for customization.  The higher swing weight makes the racquet slightly more difficult to swing, but definitely more stable than the previous BLX Blade models.

The new Wilson Blade Countervail range of tennis racquets are available to demo and purchase at First Serve Tennis in San Antonio Texas.