Contributor 22 examinations

Calliope Martinez.

Page 2 of 3

001
Tennis Shoes ·9 min · May 2026

adidas Barricade 14 Review: The Stability Tax, Renegotiated

For roughly two decades, buying a Barricade meant accepting a deal. You got a fortress around your foot — the kind of lateral stability that lets you load a wide forehand and trust the shoe not to…

002
Rules ·6 min · May 2026

Tennis Court Dimensions: The Myth That a Court Is "Just a Rectangle"

There is a tidy idea that gets repeated on coaching blogs and in pub conversation: a tennis court is just a rectangle, 78 feet by 36, with a net down the middle.

003
Forehand ·5 min · May 2026

Western Forehand Grip Test: Does the "Extreme" Grip Actually Produce More Topspin?

The short version: a full western forehand grip produced roughly 12–18% more measured topspin than a semi-western in our hitting sessions, but cost the same testers about one in five low balls they…

004
Wilson ·5 min · May 2026

Wilson Pro Staff 97 v13 Review: A Three-Lens Test of the Post-Countervail Frame

The Wilson Pro Staff 97 v13 is the first iteration in three generations that we'd hand to a control player without an apology — the removal of Countervail restores the frame's signature feedback, but…

005
Pro Stock ·5 min · May 2026

Qinwen Zheng's racquet and string setup, decoded

The honest version of Qinwen Zheng's setup is that most of what gets repeated about it traces back to one retailer bundle and a handful of bag-shot screengrabs — and the racquet inside the paint job…

006
Yonex ·5 min · May 2026

Leylah Fernandez's Racquet and String Setup, Decoded

Leylah Fernandez plays a Yonex VCORE 100 — the 300-gram, 100-square-inch spin frame — not the VCORE 98 that most of her tour-level peers reach for.

007
Yonex ·5 min · May 2026

Felix Auger-Aliassime's racquet and string setup, decoded

The number we keep coming back to is 95 — as in 95 square inches, the head size on the Yonex VCORE 95 that Felix Auger-Aliassime plays.

008
Babolat ·5 min · May 2026

Carlos Alcaraz's racquet and string setup, decoded

The racquet Carlos Alcaraz actually plays with isn't the one in the Babolat shop window. It's a Pure Aero VS pro-stock — a tighter, denser-feeling cousin of the retail Pure Aero — wearing a paint job…

009
Pro Setups ·5 min · May 2026

Ben Shelton's Racquet and String Setup, Decoded

A couple of weeks ago we picked a Yonex Ezone 98 off a demo rack at a club shop, put it on the scale unstrung, and got 305 grams on the nose.