Carlos Alcaraz's Racquet: What's His Choice?

| by Michael Flanigan

What can we learn from the racket wielded by the 2023 Wimbledon champion, Carlos Alcaraz?

Almost all professional players use some form of custom racket, usually different to the one they officially endorse through the racket brand, and feature specifications made to measure for the individual player.

However, Carlos Alcaraz, the world number one on the ATP Tour, uses a stock Babolat Pure Aero VS. The VS is a “tuned up” version of the standard Pure Aero – featuring a slightly higher mass of 320 grams strung, and a slightly tightened-up headsize of 98 square inches – and the racket is aimed at performance players looking for an extra degree of precision from the Pure Aero line.

Of course, Carlos Alcaraz is more than a few levels above the standard performance player, so his use of a racket that can be bought off the shelf is surprising, but when we look at the changes in racket technology over the last twenty years, not entirely shocking.

Despite what racket manufacturers will tell you, the main improvement in racket technology in the past two decades has not been the latest “wonder material,” but rather the engineers have become particularly good at increasing the stability of the racket, whilst at the same time making the frame lighter overall.

Alcaraz Wants To Remain 'Normal Boy' Despite Being World No. 1
Alcaraz Wants To Remain 'Normal Boy' Despite Being World No. 1

The result has been the introduction of rackets that simply don’t need to be as heavy as their predecessors in order to deliver the same level of stability, and with the lightness of modern rackets allowing for very high swing speeds, these rackets can deliver incredible power under the precise timing of a professional.

Alcaraz is not alone in the use of lighter, almost consumer-spec rackets. Holger Rune uses a similar Pure Aero VS with minimal customisation, and Nick Kyrgios wields a racket with another relatively low pro swingweight of 325kg/cm2.

As an aside, believe it or not, recently retired Roger Federer, like Alcaraz, also used an off-the-shelf racket with minimal modification. Granted, Roger’s rackets were set to the very heavy specs of a 1980s Wilson ProStaff, but it is interesting to note Alcaraz make a similar, simplistic choice as his idol decades later.

The Babolat RPM Blast string setup in Alcaraz’s racket isn’t particularly special, but no-one can deny RPM Blast is a well-made string that responds best to very aggressive hitters like Alcaraz.

His rackets are requested with a notable tension difference of between the mains strings (vertical, lengthwise with the racket) and crosses (horizontal, perpendicular to the racket’s length), which players request for many reasons, but in this case it’s likely used as a way to exaggerate the way in which the polyester RPM Blast strings slide apart on contact – increasing initial dwell time to change the feel and hit more topspin.

It should be noted also that Babolat has replaced the Pure Aero VS with the Pure Aero 98 for 2023, but the racket specifications between the two have not changed.

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