If you've ever walked into a tennis shop and been pointed at "whatever the store has surplus of," you know the problem RacketIQ is trying to solve.
The recreational tennis player who wants to upgrade their gear has surprisingly bad options. The pro shop will sell you what they have. The brand-sponsored fitting will sell you what they sell. YouTube reviews are 12-minute deep-dives on one frame from one player whose game looks nothing like yours. Nobody answers the actual question: which racket, string, and tension is right for the way you play, right now.
So I built one.
What RacketIQ does
You answer 7 to 12 questions about your game. Skill level. Play style. Swing speed. Spin preference. Physical considerations. Priority. Budget. (The detailed mode adds playing frequency, current racket, string experience, goals, grip size.)
The recommendation engine then matches you to a personalized setup: a primary racket, an alternative racket, strings, tension, dampener, and grip. Every recommendation is something you can actually buy. The catalog as of today:
- 47 racket models from Wilson, Babolat, HEAD, Yonex, Tecnifibre, Dunlop, Prince, Volkl, ProKennex
- 34 string options across polyester, multifilament, natural gut, and synthetic gut
- 12 dampener options
- 10 grips and overgrips
- 38 ATP and WTA pro player setups so you can see who actually plays your recommended frame
Take the quiz here: getracketiq.com/quiz.
Why this exists, in one paragraph
Tennis equipment is the second-most-influential variable in your game, after technique. The right racket can help your arm health, your serve, your topspin, and your second-set fatigue. The wrong racket can give you tennis elbow that takes a year to recover from. Most recreational players play whatever they were given, and the shopping experience is broken because every gatekeeper has a financial stake in the answer.
How it actually works
When you complete the quiz, your answers go to our recommendation engine, which:
- Filters the full catalog by your physical constraints first. Arm sensitivity narrows the candidate frames to the arm-friendly subset. Shoulder issues filter for lighter weights. Tennis elbow opens up the comfort-rated frames (Wilson Clash, Yonex EZONE, HEAD Gravity, etc.).
- Matches your skill level and swing speed against each frame's spec. A 3.5 beginner-to-intermediate baseliner with a developing topspin forehand and a "no elbow trouble" history gets matched to a different short list than a 4.5 control-first ball striker with a fast swing.
- Picks a primary recommendation, an alternative for variety, then the right string family and tension for that frame and your swing.
- Tells you which pros play the same frame (we track 38 of them).
Every product comes with a "why" paragraph explaining the choice in terms of your specific answers. It's not "perfect for your game" marketing copy; it's "the Clash 100 v2 protects your elbow at the cost of some precision on your flat returns, which is the trade-off you indicated you prefer."
Why I made the recommendations transparent
The 12 SEO-optimized gear guides we published at launch are the same logic the engine uses, in long form. Want to know why the Wilson Pro Staff 97 isn't a good intermediate racket? Best tennis rackets for intermediate players. Want to understand string tension's effect on power and arm health? How to choose the right string tension. Tennis elbow? Tennis elbow racket guide.
I'd rather you understand the recommendation than blindly trust it.
What makes RacketIQ different from a racket-finder on a retailer site
Three things.
Multi-brand by design. Tennis Warehouse's selector is excellent, but it has every reason to show you a Wilson when the answer might be a Yonex. RacketIQ is allowed to say "the right racket for you isn't carried by your nearest retailer; here's where to get it."
Complete setup, not just a frame. Most racket-finders give you a frame. Then you string it with whatever the pro shop suggests. The string and tension matter more than most players think — a Pure Aero strung at 60 lbs with stiff polyester is a different racket than the same frame at 48 lbs with soft poly. We recommend the complete setup.
Pro player association. When you get matched to a Babolat Pure Aero, the result tells you Carlos Alcaraz plays a customized version of it. When you get matched to a Wilson Blade 98, you'll see Stefanos Tsitsipas. That's a useful sanity check, not a marketing pitch.
How it makes money (the affiliate disclosure)
RacketIQ earns affiliate commission when you click through to Amazon (and, when other programs approve us, to Tennis Warehouse, Wilson, Do It Tennis, Tennis Express). This costs you nothing extra. Recommendations are chosen for fit, never for commission rate. The "shop" buttons are clearly marked. The footer and results page both disclose the affiliate relationship.
We don't take money from brands to favor their gear. If a Yonex is the right answer for you, the recommendation will say Yonex, even though they don't have a direct affiliate program with us today.
What I'm working on next
In rough priority order:
- More guides. Targeting "best racket for [skill / style / budget / age]" queries that don't have great answers yet. Suggestions welcome.
- Stringing reminder tool. Polyester strings die in 25-30 hours of play and most recreational players don't track it. A simple "you last restrung 6 weeks ago, time to think about it" tool.
- Match-with-a-stringer near you. Many recreational players don't have a stringer; the local pro shop's machine is set up for one type of player. A directory could help.
- Compare two players' setups. If you like Alcaraz and Sinner, see what they share, where they differ, and which philosophy your game fits better.
If you have feedback, bug reports, or recommendations for the catalog, email kikotrevino@ucla.edu. Particularly welcome: corrections to pro player gear (people switch sticks).