Wilson N Blade Mp Slice And Dice By Miko on Oct 09, 2007 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

I currently use a Liquidmetal Radical MP and am a 4.5 NTRP player. I heard around the grapevine that the nBlade offering from Wilson played very similarly, so naturally I ran out to get a demo to scoff at anything that could feel like the Radical. I was mistaken, and in a good way.

The nCode series of rackets has nanofibres for more stiffness and control. But with that technical mumbo jumbo out of the way, the nBlade racket is a solid stick. I found it felt a LOT like my own Radical. Groundstrokes were very similar to my Radical, as power and spin were readily accessible with the same amount of depth. It's not as stiff as my Radical, and I found that the lack of Intellifibres was a little more harsh on my arm than the Radical. Regardless, it hit out nicely and I didn't fly out any balls due to the racket. Note, the demo I used had a tighter syn gut stringing than my polyester Radical.

The racket was a great volleying racket, which could be a product of the syn gut strung on it. However, I got much more feel and precision with deep volleys and short angled volleys than my radical ever did. Volleying isn't a big part of my game, but somehow the nBlade made it better. Serving was a little hit and miss. I could get more power from the nBlade, but spin was just not there for me, causing a lot of double faults and accuracy issues. As my serve is a weapon for me, this was unfortunate. The weight is still 4pts head light like my Radical, but did not serve the same.

Overall, this is a good racket for a solid player looking for a solid racket to keep up with them. I would place the Radical as more demanding than the nBlade, however, they're very similar with slight differences here and there, specifically serving and volleying. My game is more oriented towards big groundstrokes, so the Radical suited my game more, but the nBlade has its own little niche as well.