About the Wilson Hyper Hammer XP Tennis Racket

Another in its game-changing series of new rackets, the Wilson Hyper-Hammer provided better performance than its predecessor, the Wilson Hammer. Wilson has a reputation for innovative designs when it comes to tennis rackets. It was responsible for marketing the first metal racket in 1967, which was made popular because Jimmy Connors used it to play in major tournaments around the world. The tennis rackets produced by this company consistently have been the choice of champions like Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Serena Williams, for example.

The Wilson Hyper-Hammer racket was the third in a series of metal rackets but its design evolved from earlier Wilson tennis rackets made from wood. In fact, the earliest patent for a wooden lawn tennis racket was filed in 1874 in England by Major Walter C. Wingfield. Wood continued to be the material of choice until Wilson made the first metal racket. This was made from aluminum which, while being less prone to breakage than wood, was too flexible to withstand the powerful hits and serves of the most dominant professional tennis players. Aluminum rackets were not as efficient shock absorbers as the wooden rackets either so the players who used the metal rackets had to consider the potential damage to their wrists, elbows, and shoulder joints.

By 1980, Wilson developed a new composite material, graphite, from which to make tennis rackets. This involved mixing carbon fibers with a plastic resin. The result was a stiffer racket than aluminum but the graphite rackets were too heavy. They did not perform much better than aluminum, either, when it came to absorbing the vibrations left by the ball. In 1987, Wilson introduced its Prostaff racket, which was specially designed for Pete Sampras who was seeded No. 1 in the world from 1993-1998. This racket was wider because of a thicker frame that increased the stiffness and helped absorb shock. The next improvement was the Wilson Hammer racket. Its unique advantage was that it is head heavy. This means that more of the weight is in the head of the racket instead of in the handle. Keeping the weight of the racket in the area where the ball hits gives players more stability and power. The "sweet spot" is higher and larger. A sweet spot is where the player intends to make contact with the ball in order to have the most control over where it will go next.

The Wilson Hammer was designed to have a very low strung weight of 8.9 ounces. Since heavy rackets can absorb more shock from balls than light ones, this racket compensated for the weight by making it head heavy in spite of the extra long "stretch" length of 27.5 inches. It featured a large head with an area of 110 inches. This allowed a player to have more power than a smaller head, which can improve a player's maneuverability. The Wilson Hyper-Hammer comes with a standard string pattern, 16 x 20. Players can choose to play with a more open pattern, which gives more potential for them to put spin on the ball or they can elect to use a denser string pattern, which makes the strings last longer.

Two other features distinguished the Wilson Hyper-Hammer racket from the earlier Wilson Hammer: hyper carbon and iso-zorb grommets. Hyper carbon is used in the aerospace industry because it is stronger, stiffer, and weighs less than titanium. Wilson added 15 percent hyper carbon to 85 percent graphite to make the new, more powerful composite Hyper-Hammer racket. The Iso-Zorb grommets where the strings connect to the racket allowed it to absorb more shock.

The Wilson Hyper-Hammer was used by Serena Williams. She has won eight career Grand Slam titles as well as an Olympic Gold Medal in 2000 for tennis. The Wilson-Hyper Hammer promised to support players like Williams whose swing was fast and long. Wilson has continued to improve its tennis racket designs by changing the handle and by developing new materials including rackets made from Kevlar.