Your racket is the most critical piece of gear you will carry on the court. It will help you attack, defend, and everything in between.

That’s why you need to select a racket that fits your playing style.

Padel is not tennis. Control is king, and control padel rackets will help you no matter the situation you find yourself in on the court.

This category of rackets is often neglected, so we are happy to shed some light on which rackets will help you add more control to your game.

Top beginner control racket

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The Piton 10 is another iteration of Black Crown's Piton line. It is an easy to use round racket that received incredibly positive reviews from our reviewers for its versatility and ease of use.

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Bea Gonzales's Astrum Eris has a mix of fiberglass and carbon fiber on its surface, which makes it an easy to use, comfortable racket.

It has Starvie's Full Plane Effect, which we consider one of the, if not, the strongest in the industry for applying spin to your shots. It is created in the molding phase, so it will not fade over time. More on Starvie at our Guide to Starvie Rackets.

Top intermediate control rackets

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The CTR version of Bullpadel's flagship Vertex is the same as the "normal" Vertex 03 in every manner, except it's shape.

It is a round format racket with a medium touch.

Our reviewers raved about its maneuverability and massive sweet spot. It is softer and more maneuverable than the Adipower CTRL.

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Probably the most-sold padel racket in history, the ML10 is named after grey-hair star, Miguel Lamperti.

There are a lot of versions of the racket floating around, which makes things confusing. At Miguel's request, in 2023, Nox added a layer of carbon fiber to the otherwise fiberglass surface in the Pro Cup Luxury model.

This made the surface harder and more durable.

We welcome this addition as it helped our reviewers maintain precision at a wide range of speeds.

It's worth mentioning that this model is more expensive than the alternative models that do not have this benefit.

The Pro Cup Luxury model also comes with Nox's premium features, like a sandblasted finish on the surface for spin generation and Nox's SmartStrap system for interchangeable wrist straps.

Best advanced control racket

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Varlion keeps pushing the envelope when it comes to racket technology. While some manufacturers slap on a new paint job and increase the price by €100 each year, Varlion has consistently innovated on padel racket technology.

2023's LW Summum Prisma Airflow model is no exception. It carries the same long handle from last year, but two major enhancements were made:

1. the long hexagonal cut-outs along the edge slightly increase the size of the sweet spot and
2. the SLICE system of ridges along the racket face were made 30% higher for more aggressive spin generation

Note that Varlion's rackets are also some of the most expensive in the industry, with price tags often nearing €400. Is it worth it? That is up to you. But similar premium rackets from Nox, Adidas, and Bullpadel are manufactured in Asia, while Varlion's are made Spain.

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Starvie is also an admirable company for pushing racket technology forward. Also proudly made in Spain, Starvie's manufacturing facility is just outside of Madrid. With a padel club on campus, I'm thinking about submitting my CV.

Along with Varlion's SLICE technology, we consider Starvie's Full Plane Effect to be one of the strongest in racket roughness.

Despite the aggressive name, the Metheora Warrior is a control-oriented racket with a medium touch and a medium balance. It's surface is a hard 3K carbon fiber and its core is Starvie's low density, EVA Soft.

When purchasing Starvie rackets, take note of the weight. The artisanal manufacturing process can result in wide variations in weight and balance.

Best "best buy" control rackets

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Kuikma's PR990s are our go to suggestion for players seeking a deal for their "second racket."

Their high quality make up - carbon fiber surface and EVA cores - belie their €99 price tag (€110 in some locales due to inflation).

The PR990 Precision models are the two round format models from Kuikma's 6 racket top-of-the-line PR990 line.

The only difference in construction between the two is the density of EVA used in the core: with the PR990 Hard using higher density foam.

This, of course, results in a marginally higher higher weight and balance, 370g --> 375g and 26cm --> 26.5cm, respectively.

Choose the PR990 Hard if you like a medium-hard touch. Choose the PR990 Soft if you like a soft or medium touch, or if you don't know what racket touch refers to, go with the PR990 Soft.

They have smooth surfaces with slight 3D reliefs that were not perceive to impact our reviewers' spin generation.

Best control rackets for comfort

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Geronimo "Momo" Gonzales's 2023 racket, the Puma SolarATTACK Momo, has been updated to increase its hardness, balance, and roughness, which makes it a welcome improvement to last year's model.

Reviewer's found the changes to transform the racket from a soft defensive racket to one with greater versatility that will appeal to a greater audience.

The design is quite striking.

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Royal Padel is one of the longest-standing manufacturers of padel rackets. Through their decades pushing padel racket technology forward, they have maintained an attention to rackets that are comfortable and reduce the chances of joint injury.

The RP 790 Whip Polyethylene uses a polyethylene foam and a fiberglass surface. This soft touch absorbs the ball on impact, which reduces the vibrations sent to your arm.

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Patty Llaguno's soft, round Trilogy Control has a soft surface, 24K carbon fiber, which generates high ball output, which absorbs vibrations and makes it easy to play with.

Other measures for comfort

Players seeking comfort should also consider other measure to increase the vibration reduction of their rackets, such as changing their undergrip - read our Guide to the Best Undergrips - or adding Shockout vibration dampeners into the holes of their racket face.

How do you recognize a good control racket?

• It is precise and predictable in its response at a wide range of speeds - soft rackets produce too great of a bounce effect at the net to be called control rackets
• It has a round shape, for the regularity of response that a wide sweet spot delivers
• Its balance is low or central because high balance rackets do not allow enough time to reach the ball with precision

Types of rackets

Padel.FYI scores rackets on 4 main categories: power, control, sweet spot size, and maneuverability. We see most attackers or left-side players choose powerful rackets, but we believe that many may play more effectively with control rackets. In padel, attacking with precision is also useful.

What are control rackets?

Control = Precision

The most advanced control rackets have a hard surface to maximize precision.

Hard surfaces, such as low K carbon fiber, provide a linear increase in ball output as more force is applied to the shot. This comes with the drawback of a significant decrease in the size of the sweet spot for harder rackets, all else being equal.

Medium hardness provides a happy medium between precision and sweet spot size and is thus the most commonly chosen hardness for most intermediate and many advanced players.

Comfort considerations and soft control padel rackets

Note that we take the health of our joints very seriously, so we also recommend soft, comfort-oriented control rackets for players who would like to avoid vibrations and potential tennis elbow complications.

That being said, most of our selections above have some form of vibration reduction technology, which when combined with proper technique will avoid joint problems for most players.

Control racket sweet spot characteristics

In addition to high control scores, control padel rackets have good sweet spot scores. A good control racket’s sweet spot tapers off gradually. As a result, mishitting the ball on the edge of the sweet spot with a round, control racket sends the ball near where it would go if the shot hit the center of the sweet spot.

Maneuverability in a control padel racket

Maneuverability is the third category where good control rackets must excel. While head-heavy rackets, such as diamonds and hybrids, help us generate power, they reduce our maneuverability. Low maneuverability results in our accidentally closing our wrists in inopportune moments. High balance rackets make us a split-second late in moving our racket into the correct position for a volley and reduce our precision in chiquitas.

While for defense-oriented rackets, the player optimizes for as high of maneuverability as possible, with control-oriented rackets, maneuverability is a second priority to control and sweet spot scores.

In general, control rackets are also a conservative choice. If you feel that you are a player who is comfortable with a versatile power and control-oriented game, you will still excel with a control racket.

People also ask

Which racket is best for me?

Your racket selection should be based on your level of play, your style of play, and your budget. Learn how to choose a racket here.

What’s the difference between control and power padel rackets?

While power rackets use shapes like teardrops and diamonds to increase weight in the head, so that the racket will deliver maximum power to the ball, control rackets prioritize maneuverability.

Should control rackets be soft?

Many recommend soft round rackets for control rackets, but in fact, soft rackets lose control at high speeds.

The “bounce effect” of soft rackets is the result of the ball entering and then bouncing out of the racket face when the foam and racket surface resumes its original shape. Players will find it difficult to prevent the ball from shooting away from soft rackets when, for example, shooting a drop shot or blocking a bajada at the net.

For this reason, we recommend hard, round rackets to advanced control-oriented players.

However, for beginners or players facing joint problems, such as tennis elbow or epicondylitis, we recommend soft rackets because they are easier to play with and they reduce vibrations.

Do professional players use control rackets?

Yes, many professional players use control rackets. A few examples are:

• Alex Ruiz, who plays with the Adidas Adipower CTRL 3.2
• Marta Ortega, who plays with the Adidas Adipower CTRL 3.2 Light
• Patricia Llaguno, who plays with the Siux Trilogy

If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out via Whatsapp or our Contact page.

Our approach

We distinguish between control and defending rackets. A control racket aids you in attacking by precise shot placement, especially while at the net, while a defending racket has higher ball output for easier defending under pressure in the back of the court.

In this guide, we evaluate padel rackets based on the following criteria:

• price
• control
• maneuverability
• size of the sweet spot
• size of the handle
• materials
• durability
• comfort
• on-court performance

We acknowledge that what makes a control padel racket the best for one person might make it less so for another.

That’s why we recommend an assortment of control padel rackets for different playing levels, playing styles, and budgets. Learn more about how we grade rackets here.

Why trust us?

Padel FYI is the Metacritic for padel rackets. To help you find the best padel racket, I have cataloged 360 reviews of 106 of the most popular padel rackets to create the most comprehensive padel racket database.

We're also linking to deals from the most popular shops across the globe to help you find the best place to get your gear!