Becoming a top player is a tricky game. Over the last few days, we’ve asked question to our Twitter followers about what makes a good player.

Some saycontrol, others variety, or spin, but the overlooked answer in all this seemed to be the choosing the right weapon to play with from the start. Without a good racquet, all the skills you have mean little or nothing. The person that brought this to our attention was World No.2 Vera Zvonareva. In the 2010 season, the change in Zvonareva’s game has been quite noticeable. Making it to the US Open finals as well as the WTA Finals in Doha, the credit for her success has been given solely to her racquet, the Prince EXO3 in black. In a statement from Prince, Zvonareva is quoted as saying, “I have played some of my best tennis in 2010 and a big part of the reason for this was my switching to the EXO3 Black with the new Prince technology at the beginning of the year. I am more confident on every ball because this racquet gives me more power without sacrificing control - even on balls I might not hit perfectly in the center when I am on the run or stretched out. I know a lot of other players on the men’s and women’s tours have also played their best tennis with this technology and you really need every edge when competing against the best players in the world,” said Zvonareva. The EXO3 are a unique line of racquets. By bringing strings out from restrictive grommet holes, what Prince calls “liberating,” allows the strings more freedom all the way to the edges of the frame. For a player, this gives a larger hitting area, at any head size.

Since picking up the Prince EXO3 earlier this year, Zvonareva has been able to move up 12 spots on the WTA Tour, reaching World Ranked No. 2, a career high, as well as her first two Grand Slam finals. Zach Pereles, VP of Marketing Communication for Prince Sports, Inc had this to say about Zvonareva,

"Aside from being a very talented and hard-working player, Vera is also very passionate, engaging and above all, extremely smart."