New Balance Fresh Foam X CT-Rally v2 review

Full review

If your knees, heels or back complain after tennis, start here. The CT-Rally v2 uses a thick slab of New Balance's Fresh Foam X, and it is clearly the comfort pick in our list on design alone.

Comfort does not come at the cost of support. An external heel frame and New Balance's FantomFit overlays are built to hold the foot, and the NDurance rubber outsole uses a modified herringbone pattern aimed at hard courts.

It is also one of the few tennis shoes with a genuine wide option: 2E for men and D for women. That makes it a natural choice for wider feet, and New Balance's range also includes a Clay version.

The drawbacks follow from the thick midsole. New Balance does not publish a weight on the pages we checked, but a shoe with this much foam sits higher off the court than most, and players who scramble to the net for quick volleys may find it less nimble than the ASICS Solution Speed FF 4 or the adidas Barricade 14. Choose it when protection matters more than agility.