Prince Delivers a Match Point With The EX03 100
Now we don’t claim to be Andre Agassi or one of the Williams sisters, but we do enjoy an occasional game of tennis. And even though we don’t have the expertise those players bring to the court, we feel we have a semi-decent grip on the game, enough to enjoy some pretty great racquets in the recent past.
Prince introduces the EX03 Black 100 tennis racquet which is replacing the Speedport Black. This version is offers their patented Energy Channel technology to carry you through and deliver (hopefully) your “A” game. The Energy Channel technology is comprised of a sculpted groove in the frame that lends your shots lots of power with minimal effort- in theory. It is also supposed to increase your spin by up to 25%. Big claims, perhaps, but we were fairly satisfied with performance. We must say, we could definitely tell a difference as far as the acceleration goes and the ball boost was a definite plus. Spin, though, wasn’t affected quite so much.
With the patented Tuning System a player can adjust the feel of the racquet with a choice between either the hole or port inserts. If you desire a more comfortable feel, a larger sweet spot, and more string dampening, use the port insert. If you prefer a more crisp response with added string feedback and the usual sweet spot, use the hole version instead. If you are wondering what the difference is, the string ports are open and string holes are more like traditional grommets, as there is a small hole that the string is threaded through. They don’t fill the ports in completely, though, so the increase in aerodynamics will still be there supposedly. The EX03 comes with port inserts.
The EX03 has a 100 square inch head size and a strung weight of 11.4 ounces which correlates to large amounts of spin and power from the baseline without losing control. This is perfect for players 3.5+ but advanced players (like Maria Sharapova, who uses this model) aren’t necessarily cut of the equation; they’re likely to appreciate the balance. We take an approach to tennis that goes pretty much like this: step up and hit the ball on the rise, and pound it back deep and hard. The EXO3 100 was rock solid, and we were able to stand substantially closer to the baseline and take half- or three-quarter swings at deep balls and pound them back with complete confidence in a baseline rally.
For a smaller and lighter version, we would recommend checking out the Prince EX03 Black Team 100 with is similar but with less weight (280g instead of 305g). You can purchase Prince gear at Amazon for around $185-$195 depending on the grip size. It’s a reasonable price for an extremely competitive racquet.
