How we score
We don't test racquets or strings ourselves. We referee the people who do — and we show our work on every number.
The label on every score
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Consensus | 3 or more scored sources rate the same product |
| Panel | 2 scored sources |
| Single-source | 1 scored source — useful, but it's one voice |
| Coverage building | In our census, but no scored source has rated it yet — the page carries specs only, never an estimated score |
A score with no named source never appears on this site. If we can't source it, we don't print it. Scales are never converted: a Tennis Warehouse 94/100, a TennCom 6/13 and a Tennis Companion 8.5/10 sit side by side exactly as published. Converting them into one number would be inventing a score, so we don't.
The scored sources
| Source | What it publishes | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Tennis Warehouse playtests | Racquets: 12 category scores + Final Verdict /10 (newer) — strings: Final Verdict /10 or an older /100 overall table, plus TWU lab data | Retailer — its own staff testers. Flagged on every use. |
| TennCom (Beckett Chung) | Tier-list composites published as written spreadsheets: strings /13, racquets /18 | Independent |
| Tennis Companion | Racquets: 12-category tables with two-decimal overalls. Strings: 8-criteria tables with overalls. When its own guide and review disagree, we show one and flag the conflict on the page | Independent, single reviewer |
| tennis MAGAZIN (Germany) | Recurring racquet tests: 5 category scores /10 — no overall. We show the categories and invent no total | Independent magazine |
| Sandplatz Tennis (Germany) | Signed author string tests: 5 categories totaled /25 by the author | Independent blog — author tests only; its community ratings are not panel data |
| Stringforum.net | Crowd ratings database (strings) — found offline in October 2026; contributes no scores until it returns | Independent community (dormant) |
Everyone else in tennis reviewing — Tennis Spin, My Tennis HQ, Tennisnerd, AC Tennis and the rest — publishes verdicts without a current, consistent numeric format (one, My Tennis HQ, has a scored archive that went stale in 2021). We read them; we don't turn prose into numbers. Video-only reviews and Shorts never count as a source, however good they are. Tennis Tribe publishes consistent category scores per racquet line — useful signal, but a line score is never copied onto an individual model here.
Players' Score — separate, always
Players can rate products too. A Players' Score publishes only at 10+ ratings for a product, written player reviews show next to their score, and the Players' Score is never blended with the Panel Score. The reviewers' verdict and the players' verdict — side by side, never mixed. For strings, the players' key signals are tension maintenance and playability life — the two things a playtest structurally can't measure.
The disclosure we lead with
Tennis's scored bench is thinner than pickleball's, and its deepest source sells the gear it scores. Pickleball's version of this site referees ~20 independent reviewers; tennis referees a handful. We'd rather build the labels honestly around that than pretend otherwise.