Tennis Racquet Review: Prince EXO3 Warrior 100 (MP)

July 11th, 2012

I have to say that I don’t really understand the Prince design process or their marketing plan. Maybe the biggest issue is that the latter drives the former. The Prince EXO3 Warrior is obviously a very big deal to this company. The racquet is used and endorsed by the brightest young American star player; John Isner. And it is obvious from the magazine ads in different tennis publications and the general level of promotional work being done on behalf of this racquet; that Prince is trying to ramp up their market share in the United States with this presentation.

There is only one major problem with this scenario; and that is that the racquet is not a very good product.

I had read a lot about this frame in different racquet review forums before I hit with it. And in all fairness the expectations that had been created maybe play a little into my negative perception with regard to this racquet. But in the end I think it had to do more with the pain in my arm than anything else.

The frame has a nice edgy silver and black cosmetic design. It is the standard 27 inches long; has a 100 square inch size head; and weighs 11 ounces strung. It has also has a 16 main by 19 cross string pattern, which should deliver a nice balance of spin and power, in theory anyways.

I didn’t like anything about this racquet when it came to hitting the ball. It is 4 points head light, but it plays as though you have loaded the handle with lead tape. I simply could not locate the head and my ground strokes just rocketed around the yard. When I went to more topspin for control I was 3-6 inches deep on a lot of ground strokes, I had to arc the ball big time to get it to land consistently in the court. Forget pace, I was just happy not to miss. The volleys were problematic; I just didn’t have enough feel to control volleys, which I usually make with ease. And the second serve I hit, my elbow started hurting.

I put the thing down at this point.

I am sure a lot of players will want to try this frame and they should. This Warrior frame is in the lineage of the one used by Pat Rafter (one of my favorite all-time players back in the day) and Isner will be a huge business draw here for Prince. But the racquet feels overpowered and head light and shocky to the arm. And I think that any intermediate to advanced player (the Prince stated target pool) would want to consider very carefully their interest in this racquet.

If you enjoyed this article, here are some others you may enjoy...