Two kinds of published review count: player reviews on TennisRecs and first-hand comments quoted from around the web, each linked to its source. Each one is read as positive, mixed or negative. A player review's star rating decides it (4–5 positive, 3 mixed, 1–2 negative); quoted comments are judged when they are moderated, and ones nobody has judged yet don't count. Only reviews from the last 3 years count.
The order rewards rackets that are both well liked and widely discussed: we count how many more positive reviews a racket has than an average racket with the same number of reviews would have. A racket with 33 positive reviews out of 43 therefore ranks above one with 15 out of 17, which is why the order doesn't always follow the share of positive reviews.
This list only takes rackets where at least 20% of reviews are positive or mixed and tag it “arm-friendly” or “forgiving”, and fewer reviews tag it “harsh on the arm” than that. The order is led by how many positive or mixed reviews use those tags, counted the same way (above the site average for that many reviews); how well liked the racket is counts half as much.
A racket needs at least 8 reviews, at least 60% of them positive (mixed counting as half), to be listed. We never pad a list: only 3 rackets qualify right now, so that's how many you see.
The list re-ranks itself as new reviews are published. There are no sponsored placements, affiliate links or paid rankings.