What tennis racket does Roger Federer play?
It's not often that tennis pros play a racquet off the rack. But that is exactly the case with Roger Federer .
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Feb 17, 2022, 09:02 am
Anyone who wants to play like Roger Federer is welcome to do so. Because while the majority of professionals swing a tuned racket, you can buy the Federer racket almost like the original.
But Federer still has a rare quality: he has played with Wilson for the rest of his career, without thinking about changing. Why? An old story goes that young Federer, an admirer of Stefan Edberg and Pete Sampras, once dragged his father Robert into a tennis shop and of course grabbed his idols' racquet.
The crazy thing: Federer still played the old Edberg/Sampras racket at the beginning of his professional career. In the 1980s and 1990s, the racquet companies did not release new versions of their successful racquets every two or three years, peppered with the latest gimmicks. Back then, a good racquet stayed on the market for years.
"Wilson Pro Staff 85 6.0": The first Federer racket
Just like the legendary "Wilson Pro Staff 85 6.0", which Chris Evert already played. And also Sampras throughout his career. True to the original, the racquet weighed 340 grams unstrung, but Sampras tuned it to 390 grams strung (with several layers of lead strips at 3 and 9 o'clock).
Federer played the "Wilson Pro Staff 85 6.0" until 2002, after which he switched to a larger model. No wonder: the Sampras racquet had a clubface of only 548 cm² (85 sq in), and even Sampras regretted not having tried a larger and therefore more forgiving racquet in later years after his career.
From 2002, Federer trusted the "Wilson Pro Staff 90" (with a 581 cm² clubface), with which he won his first Grand Slam title in Wimbledon in 2003.
And although newer versions came out in the following years (Wilson Pro Staff nSix One Tour 90, Wilson k-Factor Six One 90, Wilson Six One Tour 90 BLX, Wilson BLX Pro Staff Six One 90), Federer - as far as is known - stayed with the 2002er - True to model, just played it with the "paint job" new versions. And possibly slightly adapted to his style.
Federer: Racket change in 2014
But Federer noticed more and more that he (like Sampras once) had bigger problems against the topspin-heavy game of the competition, especially on the backhand he had to take a lot of frame hits. In 2013, after his Wimbledon exit, he tested specially made Wilson prototypes (supposedly with 98 sq in / 632 cm²) at the tournaments in Gstaad and Hamburg, but then went back to the veteran racket for the rest of the season.
For 2014 he actually came to Australia with a new racket, still painted black; later that year it went on sale as the "Wilson Pro Staff RF97 Autograph". First in the red and black design, then in 2016 in elegant black. The "tuxedo" look followed in 2018, but Federer allegedly irritated the white on the swing-out, so he returned to the black design. This was then slightly adjusted in 2020.
"Wilson Pro Staff RF97 Autograph": Play like Roger Federer!
The special thing about the "Autograph" version: It should be exactly the setup that Federer actually plays. And thus also give hobby players access to the Federer racket - even if the more playable "easier" versions will probably be better for most.
Oh yes: For the Laver Cup, Wilson released separate versions of the "Wilson Pro Staff RF97 Autograph", which Federer only played in this context.
The data of the current Federer racket
Wilson Pro Staff RF97 v13.0
Weight (unstrung): 340 grams
Balance: 30.5
Swing weight: 333
Frame hardness (RA): 68
Frame thickness: 21.5mm
String pattern 16/19
Federer plays with grip strength 3, as he confirmed to tennisnet in 2018 .
What strings does Federer play?
When it comes to stringing, Roger Federer relies on the services of Priority 1, specifically Ron Yu. Longitudinally he plays the "Wilson Natural Gut 16", transversely the "Luxilon Alu Rough 17".
Depending on the surface and the weather, Federer has his rackets strung with 27 / 25.5 kgs and 26 / 24.5 kgs.
An eye-catcher: Federer has "string savers" attached to the fourth and sixth cross strings, a relic from earlier times to protect the strings. This is actually no longer necessary, after all, the pros nowadays also change their racquet with new balls.
For Federer, too, it's probably just a matter of the head.
A nice overview of Federer's individual racket models over time can be found here!