By Robert Martin

(December 28, 2011) Finishing the year on a 12-match winning streak including winning the WTA Championships and playing a pivotal role in the Czech Republic winning its first Fed Cup title as an independent nation was not enough for Petra Kvitova.

Despite her success in 2011, she plans to move into the new year with a new racquet in hand.

In Basel, Kei Nishikori made a splash by defeating a hobbled Novak Djokovic en route to the final where he was outplayed by Roger Federer while using a new racquet. While his racquet looked very similar to the new frame of Kvitova, the Japanese star is listed to use a special frame not available in the United States.

While Nishikori will be playing the new season with a racquet called the Wilson Steam Pro BLX, fellow Wilson players Kvitova and possibly Ernests Gulbis will be seen with the Wilson Steam 100 BLX. Since the pro version is currently only going to be available overseas, I was only able to get my hands on the Steam 100.

After trying out the Juice Pro BLX, this was one of the next intriguing frames, designed to combine power and control. When Wilson came out with both a Steam 100 and a Juice 100, I immediately questioned what the differences were, but after trying both, I can say that they are entirely different racquets.

While the Juice line is designed for power and spin, the Steam 100 is a solid frame for those of us that do not hit forehands like Rafael Nadal. At 10.4 ounces unstrung and a just slightly head light balance, this moderately weighted racquet has a good amount of head heft.

The beam width is quite a bit thicker than I prefer, but the pseudo-box beam prevents it from being overly powerful. With the introduction of AmpliFeel technology, designed to increase feel and comfort at impact, I went with my typical hybrid of Tecnifibre X-One Biphase 1.24mm and Yonex Poly Tour Pro 1.25mm strung at 26/24kg.

Ground Strokes

Since I had recently hit with the Juice 100 before this particular test, I started by attempting to shift my forehand grip over to a full western, which gave me mixed results with this racquet. If I hit it perfectly, I was able to get a large amount of spin with good depth, but outside of the sweet spot left balls dropping short.

Once I moved to my usual semi-western grip, I was able to get excellent depth and pace from an easier swing by making solid contacting and rotating through the shot. In comparison to my normal racquet, the power was easier to generate without swinging all out on every shot.

From the back of the court this frame produced penetrating ground strokes from both sides, but in general sharp angles were more of a challenge unless struck perfectly. Even the moderately high flex rating of 67 did not result in any stiff feeling, probably due to the effects of the AmpliFeel system.

One complaint I had is really with the new technology, as it feels strange to me. The combination of stiffer Wilson frames and a number of various things to increase vibration dampening leaves me wanting the racquets of old that were largely graphite without the marketing fluff.

Volley

While the racquet weighed a moderate 11 ounces strung, it had a solid swing weight of 322 thanks to the near even balance. Normally not the greatest thing for netplay, this frame was an exception and actually was quite maneuverable.

The feel was still soft and muted, but hitting deep, controlled volleys was easy thanks to the stability of the frame and the quickness around the net. I was surprised that the thicker beam width did not bother me at the net.

Serve

Once again, I was pleasantly surprised by this frame as it gave plenty of pace and have good control on the serve. The spin generation was lower than what I am used to, which did hinder my second serve a bit.

While I was able to hit my targets effectively, I noticed that my serves did not have the same weight that I normally get. The result was that I was left with a bit more trouble playing serve and volley because I had to fight off better returns than normal.

Final Thoughts

Personal opinions regarding the color scheme aside, this is a surprisingly nice frame. It does make me wish I could get my hands on a Steam Pro BLX to try out the heavier weight and smaller head size. The overall weight is a bit low for my preferences, but it does provide a solid base to work with for customization.

Having tried out most of Wilson’s new line, this is the one that has surprised me the most in terms of playability. Despite this performance, it is certainly not the most attractive frame in my eyes, but I’ve been disappointed by the cosmetics of Wilson frames for years, so it is not surprising.

While the racquet is not overly stiff by any stretch, it produces a solid, muted feel that will appeal to some. I am not in that group as I have gotten used to a certain sense of flexibility in the throat that I look for.

I also wish that this frame was just a bit smaller, both in frame width and in head size to give it a bit more of a feel of being a semi-control racquet. Overall though, this has been my favorite of the new Wilson line to date, but the cosmetics leave me disappointed.