Pro Player Gear · Next-Gen Series

Changing of the Guard: The Gear Behind Tennis's Next Generation

What Fonseca, Mensík, Cobolli and Jódar actually play — a 2026 equipment breakdown.

By Tennis String Advisor Updated 18 June 2026 12 min read

For two seasons, the conversation in men's tennis has orbited two names: Sinner and Alcaraz. But Roland-Garros 2026 made something clear — the next wave is no longer knocking politely. João Fonseca rallied from two sets down to bury Novak Djokovic. Jakub Mensík ground his way into a maiden Grand Slam semifinal. Flavio Cobolli reached a final and broke into the Top 10. And a 19-year-old named Rafael Jódar — ranked outside the world's Top 700 a year earlier — bullied his way to the quarterfinals.

With Wimbledon's grass beckoning at the end of June, this is the generation poised to define the next decade. So what are they actually playing? This guide decodes the racquets, strings and tensions behind four of the most exciting young players in the men's game — separating the marketing cosmetics from the pro-stock reality, and explaining what each setup tells us about how they hit the ball.

Roland-Garros 2026: A Generation Announces Itself

Paris is where this story crystallised. Alexander Zverev finally claimed his maiden major, but the fortnight belonged just as much to the players chasing him. The headline numbers speak for themselves — here is where each of our four stood after the clay swing closed.

Four different countries, four different builds, four different ways of winning a tennis match. And, as it turns out, four very different bags. Let's open them.

01João Fonseca — The Spin-First Throwback

🇧🇷 Yonex · age 19 · World No. 25
Racquet
Yonex VCORE 98 (pro-stock)
Strings
Poly Tour Strike 1.25 / 1.20 hybrid
Reported spec
~356 g · ~330 SW · head-light

Fonseca endorses the Yonex VCORE 98, a control-leaning, spin-oriented frame built for players who generate their own pace. But look closely at the close-up footage and the cosmetics tell only half the story. Gear analysts who have measured his frame are near-unanimous that he competes with a pro-stock racquet built on an older mould — specifically the denser 16×20 string pattern last seen on the 2016 VCORE SV 98, rather than the 16×19 layout of today's retail model. The current paint job is simply wrapped over a frame he trusts.

His string bed is a polyester-on-polyester hybrid: a thicker 1.25 mm Poly Tour Strike in the mains paired with a thinner 1.20 mm in the crosses. It's a configuration that has quietly spread across the tour — the thicker main delivers durability and control, while the thinner cross adds a touch of liveliness and snapback for spin. Forum analysts who handled his frames reported a heavy strung weight of roughly 356 g with a swingweight around 330 and a head-light balance, finished with a leather grip and a red Yonex dampener.

What does it tell us? That a 19-year-old with one of the biggest forehands in the sport has chosen an old-school, heavy, control-first platform rather than a light, powerful modern frame. The racquet supplies precision and plough-through; Fonseca supplies the violence.

Point Expert — Cosmetics are not specs

On the pro tour, the paint job almost never matches the racquet underneath. Manufacturers update retail cosmetics every two years, but a player who is winning matches has no reason to change the frame in his hand — so the new graphics are simply painted over the mould he already trusts. Fonseca is a textbook case: a modern VCORE 98 shell hiding a near-decade-old layout.

Practical takeaway: never assume that buying your favourite player's branded racquet gives you their racquet. The retail version is a useful starting point, but the weight, balance, stiffness and even string pattern can differ meaningfully from the pro-stock frame.

02Jakub Mensík — A Cannon Serve in a Control Frame

🇨🇿 Wilson · age 20 · World No. 17
Racquet
Wilson Blade 98 (dense 18-main)
Strings
Luxilon ALU Power (full bed)
Style
Flat, big serve, head-light

Mensík is a Wilson Blade 98 player, and unlike many of his peers he opts for the denser 18-main configuration rather than the more common 16×19. There is some healthy debate among racquet-spotters about whether his frame is a true retail-pattern 18×20 or a pro-stock 18×19 layout (closer to what Djokovic and Medvedev use) — the consensus lands on the tighter, flatter-hitting end of the Blade family either way. The ATP itself has noted that Mensík carries more static weight than you might expect, but with the balance shifted toward the handle, making the racquet distinctly head-light.

On strings, there is no ambiguity: Mensík strings with Luxilon ALU Power, the shaped co-polyester that has been a tour staple for two decades and remains the benchmark for control-oriented poly. It is the same string family trusted by a long list of flat, aggressive ball-strikers — exactly the company Mensík keeps stylistically.

The logic is clean. A serve that routinely tops 220 km/h needs a frame that keeps the ball in the court. A 98-inch head with a dense pattern lowers the launch angle and tightens directional control, giving Mensík a penetrating, flat ball off both wings to follow his serve. He doesn't need the racquet to add spin or power — he needs it to behave.

03Flavio Cobolli — The Control Craftsman

🇮🇹 HEAD · age 24 · World No. 10
Racquet
HEAD Radical Pro (pro-stock TGT351)
Strings
Signum Pro Firestorm + natural gut
Tension
~26 kg / 57 lb · ~315 g

Cobolli plays a HEAD Radical Pro, and like the others it's a pro-stock build — racquet detectives point to the flat yoke-grommet strip that identifies the Graphene 360+ Radical mould (pro code TGT351) beneath the current paint. He switched to the Radical platform after an earlier spell on the HEAD Speed, gaining a touch more flex and feel in the process. Refreshingly, Cobolli is one of the rare young pros happy to discuss his setup openly.

And here is where his game lives. Cobolli strings a hybrid: Signum Pro Firestorm in the mains — a string he has used essentially his whole career — paired with natural gut in the crosses. In a video breaking down his gear, Cobolli himself put the frame around 315 g and the tension at roughly 26 kg (about 57 lb). That gut cross is the tell: it adds comfort, power and outstanding tension maintenance to an otherwise firm polyester main, giving him the soft, responsive pocketing that lets him redirect and shape the ball so cleanly.

Point Expert — The gut-poly hybrid

Pairing natural gut with a polyester is one of the most respected setups on tour. The poly main provides the spin, control and durability of a modern string; the natural gut cross restores the comfort, power and elasticity that a full poly bed sacrifices — and gut holds tension better than almost anything else, so the feel stays consistent for longer.

The catch for club players is cost. Natural gut is expensive and less durable than poly, so a gut-hybrid restring is a premium choice. If you love the idea but not the price, a soft multifilament cross is a sensible budget stand-in — see our complete guide to string tension for how tension interacts with these choices.

04Rafael Jódar — The Next Spanish Grinder

🇪🇸 HEAD · age 19 · World No. 23
Racquet
HEAD Speed MP (pro-stock TGT/PT 339)
Strings
HEAD Lynx Tour (full bed, current)
Profile
2HBH · ~1.90 m · idol: Nadal

The least-documented bag of the four — unsurprisingly, given how fast he has arrived — belongs to Jódar. The 19-year-old from Madrid, a HEAD Speed MP player carrying the pro-stock code TGT/PT 339, swings one of the most popular moulds on the entire tour: it sits in the same family of frames used by a long list of professionals across styles. A 2024 US Open boys' champion who turned pro after a spell at the University of Virginia, Jódar plays a two-handed backhand, stands a shade over 1.90 m, is coached by his father, and counts Rafael Nadal as his idol.

On strings the picture is less settled — he has been seen experimenting — but his current setup appears to be a full bed of HEAD Lynx Tour, a shaped co-polyester that balances spin, control and reasonable comfort. As with any teenager rising this quickly, expect this to evolve as he and his team dial things in over the coming seasons.

The takeaway: the Speed MP is, in many ways, the default modern racquet — an all-court platform that blends power and control without committing to either extreme. For a 19-year-old whose clay results have outpaced his ranking, it's a versatile, low-risk foundation to build a career on.

The Next-Gen Bag at a Glance

Four players, four distinct philosophies. Here is the verified summary — with the important caveat that every frame below is a customised pro-stock build, not the retail racquet you'll find in a shop.

*Exact tensions for Fonseca, Mensík and Jódar are not publicly confirmed and, like all tour players, are adjusted by conditions and surface. Treat tension as a working range rather than a fixed number.
Player Racquet (cosmetic) Pro-stock mould / code String setup Tension
João Fonseca Yonex VCORE 98 Older VCORE SV 98 (16×20) mould Yonex Poly Tour Strike hybrid (1.25 / 1.20) Working range*
Jakub Mensík Wilson Blade 98 Blade 98, dense 18-main layout Luxilon ALU Power (full bed) Working range*
Flavio Cobolli HEAD Radical Pro Graphene 360+ Radical (TGT351) Signum Pro Firestorm mains + natural gut crosses ~26 kg (57 lb)
Rafael Jódar HEAD Speed MP Speed MP mould (TGT/PT 339) HEAD Lynx Tour (full bed, current) Working range*

What Their Choices Tell Us About Modern Tennis

Lay the four bags side by side and clear patterns emerge — patterns that say a lot about where the equipment side of the men's game is heading.

1. Pro-stock is the rule, not the exception

Not one of these four plays the exact racquet you can buy. Each competes with a customised, often older, mould dressed in current paint. This is the single most important thing a club player can understand about pro gear: the brand on the throat is real, the precise frame underneath usually isn't.

2. Control frames dominate — nobody is chasing free power

Every one of them plays a 98-inch head with either a control-oriented design or a denser string pattern. There are no oversized power frames here. These are players who generate their own pace and want the racquet to supply precision and predictability instead. The modern elite increasingly treats the racquet as a control tool, not a power booster.

3. Hybrids and gut are quietly back in fashion

Two of the four hybrid their string beds — Fonseca with a poly-on-poly setup and Cobolli with the premium gut-and-poly combination. After years of full-poly orthodoxy, the tour is rediscovering that mixing strings lets a player tune comfort and feel without surrendering spin and control.

4. Heavier than the headlines suggest

Despite the modern trend toward lighter frames among some superstars, Fonseca's reported ~356 g is a properly hefty, head-light stick — a reminder that plough-through and stability still win matches at the top. Mensík, too, carries more static weight than his youth might imply.

Point Expert — Take inspiration, don't copy blindly

Borrow the philosophy, not the exact spec. If you admire Mensík's flat, controlled game, a retail Wilson Blade 98 is a faithful starting point — you don't need his pro-stock weights. Love Cobolli's feel? Try a control frame with a gut or multifilament cross before chasing his exact mould.

Match the racquet to your body and game, then dial in strings and tension second. A frame that is too heavy or too head-heavy for you will cause more harm than any string choice can fix. When in doubt, demo, and let your arm and your results — not the name on the paint job — make the final call.

Frequently Asked Questions

What racquet does João Fonseca use?

Fonseca endorses the Yonex VCORE 98, but he competes with a customised pro-stock frame built on an older VCORE SV 98 mould with a denser 16×20 string pattern. He strings a Yonex Poly Tour Strike hybrid (1.25 mm mains, 1.20 mm crosses), and analysts who measured his frame report a heavy strung weight near 356 g with a head-light balance.

What strings does Flavio Cobolli use?

Cobolli plays a hybrid: Signum Pro Firestorm polyester in the mains — a string he has used throughout his career — with natural gut in the crosses. In a gear video he cited a frame around 315 g strung at roughly 26 kg (about 57 lb). The natural gut cross adds comfort, power and excellent tension maintenance to the firmer poly main.

What racquet does Jakub Mensík play with?

Mensík uses a Wilson Blade 98 in the denser 18-main configuration (there is some debate over whether it's a true 18×20 or a pro-stock 18×19 layout), strung with a full bed of Luxilon ALU Power. The dense pattern lowers launch angle and tightens control, complementing one of the biggest serves in the young game.

Can I buy the exact racquets these players use?

Not exactly. All four play customised pro-stock frames that differ from the retail versions in weight, balance, stiffness and sometimes string pattern. You can, however, buy the retail equivalents — the Yonex VCORE 98, Wilson Blade 98, HEAD Radical Pro and HEAD Speed MP are all sold to the public and make excellent starting points to approximate each player's feel.

What string tension do these young pros use?

Only Cobolli's is publicly confirmed, at around 26 kg (57 lb). For the others, exact tensions aren't published and, like all tour players, they adjust by surface and conditions, so any figure should be treated as a working range rather than a fixed spec. Most control-oriented pros sit somewhere in the low-to-mid 20s in kilograms (roughly 48–55 lb).

Who is the next big thing — Fonseca, Mensík, Cobolli or Jódar?

All four are genuine prospects with different timelines. Cobolli, already Top 10 at 24, is the most proven. Mensík, a 20-year-old Masters 1000 champion with a huge serve, has the highest ceiling on fast courts. Fonseca, 19, has the most explosive ball-striking and the biggest hype. Jódar, also 19, is the newest arrival and the strongest pure clay-courter of the group. The grass season and the US hard-court swing will tell us plenty.

Conclusion: Four Bags, One Direction

The gear behind tennis's next generation isn't flashy — it's deliberate. Four young players, four different countries and four different ways to win, all converging on the same principle: control frames, tuned strings, and setups built around their own engine rather than the racquet's.

If you're a flat, aggressive ball-striker, study Mensík's dense-pattern Blade and a control poly like ALU Power. If you live for feel and touch, Cobolli's gut-hybrid Radical is the blueprint. If you're a spin-first baseliner who likes a substantial frame, Fonseca's heavy VCORE setup points the way. And if you want one versatile platform to grow with, Jódar's Speed MP is hard to beat. Just remember the golden rule of pro gear: borrow the idea, not the exact spec — and let your own game, not the paint job, make the final call. Watch this generation closely on the Wimbledon grass; the changing of the guard has already begun.

Sources Consulted

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