Solinco Blackout 300 Racquet Review

Groundstrokes - Score: 82

The Solinco Blackout 300 offered some of the quintessential characteristics from the baseline that our playtesters look for in their 'tweener racquets, including easy power, spin and maneuverability. Before Brittany hit with the Blackout 300, she snuck a pretty good peek at the specs and was excited about what she saw. She said, "The specs land directly right where I like them, and I headed down to the court as soon as I could. The first thing I noticed was that I had no adjustment period with the Blackout 300, and it felt really comfortable in my hands. Warming up groundstrokes, I got easy power and depth. The racquet was easy to swing and offered a forgiving sweetspot. When I transitioned to points, I noted a couple of things. The first was that I could be on a full-out stretch and still get the ball back deep in the court. On the other hand, I was lacking a little precision when I started aiming for more specific targets, and a lot of my shots were landing uncharacteristically long. The Blackout could be a little flighty, and I ended up playing slightly more conservatively."

Unlike Brittany, Tiffani kept the specs a surprise. She said, "Other than its unstrung weight, I wasn't sure what the specs of this Blackout 300 were before I hit the court. Once I started rallying from the baseline, I recognized this was a very familiar spec for me. This racquet didn't require an adjustment period, and I quickly found a good groove rallying from the baseline. I noticed more topspin coming off my usual swings, and this racquet paired really well with the Solinco Hyper-G string we had in it. I recall hitting some crazy cross-court angles with this racquet, and they came off the stringbed with more extreme angle than I had intended. I'll take it! I did, however, find it difficult to gauge my depth once I started playing points with it. I would hit long, try to adjust and then find myself hitting shorter than I wanted. This racquet did offer plenty of power and spin, and I enjoy drilling with it, but I need more time to fine-tune my depth to play with it in matches."

"This racquet packs a punch!" exclaimed Jason. "I thought it was easy to maneuver and swing, which resulted in excellent access to spin and depth. I really enjoyed it when I was rallying with it, but I thought the Blackout 300 was too launchy when I was trying to put the ball away. Shots were landing long with this racquet that would have been in with a more control-oriented racquet."

Chris agreed with the rest of the team. He said, "Big power and big spin pretty much summed up my experience from the baseline with the Blackout 300. At first, I struggled to place the ball with my backhand slice due to the ball floating too much. I found the cure was to fully commit and hit a more knifing slice, which resulted in much-improved accuracy and a heavy slice. When I took a big swing, generated lots of topspin and found my targets, I was hitting a very nice ball. The flip side was that if I was just slightly off, it was easy to overhit with this racquet. Either way, I had tons of fun blasting away with the Blackout 300. It wasn't a racquet where I was looking to hit with a lot of precision, but I did have two very successful options. I could rally easily and use the inherent power and spin to hit an effective ball, or I could unload on the ball and hit a very heavy, penetrating shot."

Volleys - Score: 82

Up at net, the Solinco Blackout 300 helped our playtesters end points with put-away volleys that landed deep in the court. Just like on groundstrokes, Jason found power and spin from the racquet on his volleys. He said, "The amount of pop I was able to get on my volleys was impressive. I didn't have to swing much to put the ball away. I also liked how much spin, specifically backspin, I could generate on my touch volleys."

"The Blackout 300 made it very easy to get in position and punch volleys deep in the court to end the point," continued Brittany. "I didn't access as much touch or hit many drop volleys because I couldn't get the feel dialed in. However, those types of volleys are not my strength, and I don't really hit them a lot, so that didn't bother me. I also thought the racquet felt pretty stable, and I never experienced any twisting in hand or got pushed around."

Chris had fun playing doubles with this racquet, and being able to punch volleys away with lots of power was a big part of that. He said, "The Blackout 300 felt fast and easy to maneuver. The response was very lively, and all I needed to do to generate depth was merely block the ball back. I was able to cut under the ball and get lots of slice on my volleys to help them drop short thanks to the maneuverability and spin-friendly string pattern. The feel at contact was crisp and lively. I liked the Blackout 300 strung with Solinco's Hyper-G since it added some control to the powerful response."

Although Tiffani isn't known to come to net as often as some of the other playtesters, she was able to get the job done with this racquet. She said, "Like usual, I kept it basic up at net, and the Blackout 300 held up its end of the bargain. The stability levels are where they need to be, and I thought it was on par with other racquets in this weight class. I didn't struggle as much with my control up at net and used the power level to get my volleys deep in the court."

Serves - Score: 84

Our playtesters enjoyed hitting powerful first serves with ease and tapping into the spin potential for kick second serves with the Solinco Blackout 300. Tiffani took full advantage of the racquet's effortless power. She said, "I liked how the Blackout 300 came through the hitting zone on my serve. The balance and weight just felt right to me on this shot. It wasn't too difficult to swing, and it offered easy pace. I wasn't getting the spin I wanted sometimes because my technique can break down, but when I was executing my swing well the ball had extra movement on it. I felt confident enough to mix up my serves and placement."

"The Blackout 300 had me serving with lots of pace and spin," added Chris. "When going for all-out pace on a flat serve, I struggled to zero in on my targets a little and found better results adding some spin. My slice serve worked very well with this racquet. I was able to hit more aces going wide on the deuce side than usual, and my slice serve into the returner's body was also working well."

Brittany liked the easy power she got on her first serve. She said, "It was pretty effortless to get the Blackout 300 up and over my head and hit flatter first serves with decent weight behind them. I will say that I aimed the majority of my first serves in the middle of the service box toward my opponent's body because I didn't feel I could be as accurate as I wanted. I did throw in some slice serves out wide for a little variety. On second serves, I had to make sure I snapped my wrist to get the balls to dip inside the service line. Luckily, it is pretty easy to generate spin, so this wasn't too much of a problem."

Jason achieved some successful serves with the Blackout 300, though he also found a little less control than he would have liked. He explained, "I felt like I was serving well with this racquet because of the power and spin I could generate. My opponents were hitting weaker returns that I could easily put away. I did struggle slightly with depth control here as well, though. I noticed that I was missing long the majority of the time."

Returns - Score: 83

Our playtesters were able to start points aggressively with the Solinco Blackout 300, but their returns lacked precision at times. Serve returns were also fun to hit with the Blackout 300 for Chris. He said, "I found tons of power when redirecting the pace of a serve. Again, getting spin was the key for consistency. I enjoyed hitting big cross-court topspin returns the most because I could go big while having plenty of real estate to play with. I had good results when I drove a slice return, but it was hard to control the depth when I wanted to float a slice and buy myself more time."

This racquet was quite the weapon on returns for Jason. He described, "The easy depth, easy spin and quick-swinging response allowed me to attack serves. I just had to make sure I was imparting plenty of topspin on my shots to keep them in play. Even when I had to block or chip a return, I found enough depth to start the point in a bit more neutral position."

Tiffani took a conservative approach when it came to aiming at targets, but she still enjoyed taking big cuts. She said, "The racquet balanced stability and maneuverability well, and I could take a healthy swing at weaker serves or block back hard-hit serves, so I felt comfortable starting off points on returns. Although I didn't have as much of an issue with depth control on my returns as I did with my groundstrokes, I still wouldn't call this a precision-oriented racquet, so I aimed at big targets. It was fun to try to get more aggressive with my swings on returns, though, because the Blackout 300 does offer plenty of pop."

Brittany needed some time to get used to the Blackout 300 on returns thanks to all that extra power. She wrapped up the playtest, saying, "Similar to groundstrokes, it was really easy to overhit my returns on both first and second serves. After a small adjustment of adding a bit more spin and aiming for a bigger target (like down the middle), I was getting a little more comfortable with the racquet. It was a similar story on second serves, but I felt I had a tad more control as the ball was coming in with less pace, and I could really go after it."

Overall - Score: 82