If your hands sweat, buy Tourna Grip. It is the only overgrip that works by absorption rather than tack, which means it gets grippier as it takes up moisture — the opposite behaviour to everything else on the shelf. For everyone else, the Wilson Pro Overgrip is the default for good reason: thin, tacky from the first wrap, and cheap in a 12-pack.
Tacky versus absorbent
This is the whole category, and most players have never been told there is a choice.
Tacky grips— the Wilson Pro, the Babolat VS, almost everything — are polyurethane and feel sticky out of the packet. They are comfortable and immediately grippy. As they get wet, the tack goes away, which is exactly when you need it.
Absorbent grips— Tourna Grip is the famous one — feel dry and slightly papery when new. They work by wicking moisture off your hand, and they get grippier as they do it. In heat or humidity they are not slightly better; they are a different experience.
The catch is that the first five minutes with a Tourna Grip feels wrong to anyone used to tack. Give it a full session before you judge it.
Thickness changes your grip size
An overgrip adds roughly 1/16 of an inch, which is half a grip size. Two overgrips take you up a full size.
This is genuinely useful: it is why the advice on our grip size guideis to buy the smaller of two frame sizes and build up. It is also a trap — if you wrap a new overgrip over three old ones because you never took them off, your grip is now a size and a half too big and you wonder why your wrist hurts.
Remove the old one. Every time.
Overgrip versus replacement grip
Two products that get confused constantly. The replacement gripis the base layer bonded to the bare handle — thicker, changed maybe once a year. The overgrip goes on top, is thin and cheap, and is a consumable.
Never strip the replacement grip to fit an overgrip. You lose the handle's bevel definition, which is how you locate your grip without looking, and about a quarter of a grip size.
Why this matters more than it sounds
A slick grip makes you squeeze harder to stop the racquet moving. Sustained gripping loads the forearm extensor tendons, which is the mechanism behind tennis elbow. A fresh overgrip is a few dollars; the alternative is a season.
The four compared
| Grip | Type | Thickness | Pack | Best for |
|---|
| Tourna Grip XL Original | Absorbent | Thin | 30 | Sweaty hands, heat, humidity |
| Wilson Pro Overgrip | Tacky | 0.5 mm | 12 | The safe default |
| Babolat VS Original | Tacky | Ultra-thin | 3 | Maximum handle feel |
| Babolat Aero Damp | Dampener (not a grip) | — | 2 | Killing string ping |
Buy in the biggest pack you will get through. Overgrips are a consumable and the per-grip price falls sharply with pack size — the 3-pack is for trying something, not for stocking up.
How to wrap one properly
Start at the butt end, not the top. Peel the backing, line the tapered start against the butt cap, and wrap upwardtoward the throat with about a 1–2 mm overlap, keeping steady tension throughout.
Wrapping downward from the top is the common mistake: your hand then slides against the exposed edges of each wrap rather than over them, and the grip unravels within a session.
Finish with the supplied finishing tape, and pull each turn firm but not stretched — an over-stretched grip relaxes unevenly and bunches.
When to change it
When it stops being tacky, or stops absorbing. For a tacky grip in normal conditions that is every 6–10 playing hours; in summer heat, less. Tourna Grip is designed to be changed often and some players change it every session.
The practical signal: if you notice yourself gripping harder, it is done.
The dampener, stated honestly
The Babolat Aero Damp is on this page because it lives in the same part of the bag and costs the same as a grip, not because it does the same job.
It removes the high-frequency string ping, which many players find distracting. It does notreduce the frame vibration that loads the tendon, so it is not treatment for arm pain — a point we repeat because it is the most common misunderstanding in tennis accessories. Buy it if you dislike the sound. If your elbow hurts, change your string.
