The Truth About the 2025 Gravity Tour 98
Now that the dust has kind of settled with the launch of the Gravity Tour 98, I wanted to give it a second look. I suppose the dust hasn’t fully settled, as we aren’t even a full month off the public release, but given that Head circulated teasers of this frame in late Fall last year, it feels like we’ve all had some time to digest this racquet. Luckily for Head, and I suppose for us, it was an easy racquet to love. A lot of this racquet’s love seems based on hype, which I think is fair because we should be excited. We’ve been asking for a Gravity 98 for years. We’ve been asking for glossy black paint for years. And Head actually gave it to us.
Market Analysis
Head is releasing this racquet as a Blade competitor, which I find funny because I think the Extreme Pro and the Radical MP already do a good job competing with the Blade, being well-rounded, control-leaning 98’s. This is not even mentioning the Prestige MP, which hit’s the Blade more closely in terms of flex profile but misses the 98 square inch head, being a 99 itself.
On paper, I can see how someone could consider the G98 to be a Blade competitor. 98 square inches, 22mm flat beam, which is slightly thicker than the Blade, lower flex and an ethos which just screams “pro player.” However, there is one thing about the Gravity 98 that is not Blade-like at all and that’s the stringbed.
In typical Gravity fashion, the head shape is quite circular, and the shoulders are pulled out at 10 and 2 to give the user a higher sweet spot for more power and spin. Then, we’ve got a progressive string pattern which is most openly spaced towards the tip, increasing power and spin even more. This means that the string spacing in the Gravity’s sweet spot is actually MORE OPEN than any portion of the string spacing on my Pure Aero Rafa.
This is the Gravity 98 in its elusive prototype paintjob from when I tested it early.
This spin-oriented sweetspot means that the Gravity 98 plays way more like a spin-control racquet than an attacking-control racquet, which is how I would describe the Blade. In fact, I personally think that the Gravity 98’s closest competitor, playability-wise, is the Yonex VCORE 98. Both have raised sweetspots with exaggerated teardrop head-shapes, low RA’s and spin-oriented string patterns. The Gravity 98 plays like a crisper, low powered VCORE 98 or a Gravity MP with better control.
This is NOT the 98 square inch Gravity Pro with amazing directional control that you may have expected. It’s also not a very good Pure Aero 98 replacement because the power and stability is so much worse with the Gravity. And while it may not be exactly what you expected… the Gravity 98 is still a very very good tennis racquet.
Spin
The Gravity 98 excels at playing creative, spin-oriented, counter punching all-court tennis. Think players like Tommy Paul or Lorenzo Lusetti. Their weapons are movement, consistency, and tennis IQ, I think this is the kind of player that the Gravity 98 suits best. The spin is absolutely phenomenal, especially of a racquet with such a low flex.
There’s actually two ways that the Gravity helps with spin. There are racquets, like the Pure Aero 98 or the SX300 Tour that are great spin racquets in the way that they help increase your spin on every shot. Stiffer layups help with energy return, open string patterns facilitate snapback and high launch angles encourage the user to apply shape to their shots. But those racquets are not great for spin modulation.
Spin modulation comes from the maneuverability of the frame, helping the player find the right spin for every shot, racquets like the Extreme Pro or VCORE 95 are some of the best examples for frames that offer strong “spin modulation.” I felt that the Gravity Tour performed strongly in both ways, offering me both a general spin increase from the open pattern and juicy head shape, but also offering supreme spin-modulation through excellent maneuverability and tip-awareness.
Feel
Feel is another massive strength for the Gravity 98. I have accused several of Head’s Auxetic 2.0 racquets of feeling “artificial,” specifically being artificially soft with a “grape-popping” sensation on impact or being kind of rubbery and dull. The Gravity 98 is an exception. The feel is pure and organic, responsive yet comfortable. It’s definitely Head’s best “feeling” racquet since the original Gravity Pro came out in 2019. In fact, it reminds me a lot of that initial Gravity release.
Through the 2010’s, many of Head’s offerings felt hollow, stiff and brassy. When the Gravity first came out, Head reminded us of what they did pre-Graphene, bringing us a super solid, plush, yet connected feeling racquet. With Auxetic, I’ve gotten used to this artificial, rubbery feel but the Gravity 98 has reminded me that Head can produce a racquet that feels both connected and comfortable, without too rubbery of a feel like we get with the Speeds or too boardy like we see with the Radicals.
The G98’s open stringbed and the low RA combine to deliver a huge amount of ball-pocketing, meaning you can really feel the ball come in and out of the strings while also feeling where you made contact on the racquet face. I personally love the feel of the Gravity and hope that the personality of this frame becomes the new standard for Head moving forward.
Power
I’m going to rip the Band-Aid off right now, this Gravity Tour is low powered and unforgiving.
This really shouldn’t be a surprise, as Gravity’s have always been lower powered frames with thinner beams and lower flexes, but I’m seeing a lot of people cross-shopping the Gravity 98 with much stiffer racquets, like the TFIGHTs, which are inherently more powerful. Despite the tear drop head shape and open string pattern, the Gravity Tour is not a super forgiving racquet. This is, perhaps, its most Blade-like quality.
You absolutely MUST take giants rips with this thing to have any kind of success with this frame. Any hesitation in your footwork, any deceleration through contact, or second guessing of your shot and the Gravity Tour will punish you in ways that more powerful frames, like the Aero 98, VCORE 98 or TFIGHT just won’t. Any lack of commitment will result in a complete lack of court penetration.
This unforgiveness is made even more punishing because of the amazing spin potential. Yes, I meant those adjectives. Remember the way to beat Rafa was to pound flat backhands as hard as possible, cross-court, right into his forehand so that he would produce a short ball? That’s what happens with this Gravity. Short balls tend to sit up because of the extra topspin you can find with this frame, making them easy for your opponent to attack.
Thankfully, I do think this racquet has sufficient control to encourage the user to stay on the gas at all times.
Control
I’m going to rip another Band-Aid off here, this racquet has kind of bad control.
But again, what are you going to expect from a racquet with such an open string pattern? If you think racquets like the Pure Aero or VCORE are erratic from their string pattern, the Gravity Tour is just as bad from a pure “launchiness” perspective. If you are a flat ball striker, there are many much better racquets out there, like the Gravity Pro, the TFIGHT 305S and of course, the Wilson Blade. All of these have much better directional and depth control than the new Gravity Tour.
That said, I do think this racquet has sufficient control if you are looking for big time control through spin application. For big hitting spin players, there are few better options than this. It’s not like you need to hit extra spin to keep the ball in, like you might with a Shift 99 or last gen Gravity MP, but if you do hit with a medium amount of topspin, as most modern advanced players do, then you really feel like you can’t miss. I think this is mainly because the power levels are so low with this frame, but the response and feel is also predictable and confidence inspiring.
Unfortunately, when I went for big, flat changes of direction, the Gravity Tour sprayed when racquets like the TFIGHT 305S would have keep the ball in, but as long as you keep some shape on the ball, I think you can trust the racquet to find the court.
Ultimately, this is going to be a player-dependent conclusion. Players who have modern technique and natural topspin production find more than enough control for even the biggest swings, but those with flatter, more guiding technique will likely struggle to find their best tennis.
Setups
I’ve tried several different string setups with this one, RPM Rough, Lynx Tour, Hawk Power, Hawk Touch, O-Toro and finally Grapplesnake Tour Mako. Generally, I’d advise to choose crisper strings with some texture for ball grip. Softer, slightly muted strings like O-Toro and Hawk Touch don’t like the feel of the Gravity Tour shine. Going to something too round or slippery doesn’t provide enough bite on the ball given how open the string bed is. My two favourite setups here are Tour Mako and RPM Rough.
Both strings have a nice texture, RPM Rough being your typical rough string and Tour Mako having the sandpapery texture. These textures introduce additional audible feedback to the setup with pairs really nicely with the whistling cap grommets and generally loud hitting noise. I personally liked the extra power and court penetration I found with Tour Mako, compared to RPM Rough, but if you really value spin and control, RPM Rough is probably the way to go.
Setup wise, I don’t think this frame needs anything more than a leather grip. I personally love the VT Advantec grips because they are made of softer leather than your typical Head or Babolat grip and they are way more re-useable.
The added handle weight helped me time the ball a little bit better and added some much needed stability without sacrificing swingspeeds.
Player Recommendations
Despite the relatively unique market positioning of this stick, I actually think there’s a pretty easy group of players to recommend this frame to. If you want a more controlled Gravity MP, a more connected and slightly higher swingweight VCORE 98 or a VCORE 95 with a larger head, then the Gravity Tour 98 is a perfect choice. The one caveat I have, and this is coming from someone who really doesn’t like to gatekeep racquets, I think you need to be a pretty advanced player to get the most out of this frame.
If you are a 3.5/4.0 who just likes to rally and enjoy recreational hits, get some exercise, feel that perfect control, then 100% go ahead. The Gravity Tour is super rewarding and I think you’ll love it.
But if you are that level and you are a tournament player, then the VCORE 98, Gravity MP or even the Speed MP, those are all much better options.
At 4.5+, I’d happily recommend this to any big swinging spin player who likes playing with angles and counter punching. Even at high levels, I think there are better racquet for winning matches in today’s power-meta baseline game but this frame will undoubtedly win you matches.
Final Thoughts
I love this racquet. It’s incredibly fun to use, it rewards taking big cuts and it suits my natural, spinny, counter punching style. I personally prefer the new TFIGHTs, I like the extra stability and power, but they don’t have the same fun factor as this Gravity.
I do still prefer my VCORE 95 as a “for fun” sports car racquet, but the paintjob alone almost makes this Gravity worth switching to.
In terms of “switchability,” I’d need this racquet to be a lot stiff, giving me more power and stability before I could switch to it. I also think that a 16x20 pattern would help a lot with directional control as I think that’s a pretty big weakness for this frame. It also adds yet another layer of confusion to Head’s already massive lineup because somehow, the Gravity Tour is a better spin/control racquet than the Extreme Pro.
