Racquet History - Babolat Pure Drive Team Plus

Babolat Pure Drive Team Plus
I had picked this racquet up after I bought the more response (when I first got back to playing), but kept it in my bag bc one my 1st hit, I just didn't like it. Once my form improved I whipped it out...
Wow. I mean I called this racquet "the boomstick" . I had replaced the original syntec grip with leather and restrung it around 54#s (it originally had pro hurricanes at 61# which was wayy too much for me at the time). The PD was like a cannon. I was blasting shots left and right with recklass abandon. I also found something else out too. I liked the hollow feel of the frame. I liked the thick beam. It felt great at impact. In the end though, it was a bit too "clunky" for me. I don't play with much control, but I do like to play with some. I relagated the pure drive to be my "hail mary" racquet. If i was behind, I'd pull it out and literally swing for the fences.

Racquet History - Donnay Pro1 International

Donnay Pro1 International
The pro1 was a sweet stick. I had tried out an nBlade recently and absolutely hated it. Too much of an even balance, too thin beamed. just didn't do it for me.
I traded it for the Donnay. I probably should have opted for the oversize (ala Agassi) but I went with the midplus. This stick was great. Really solid feel, great balance, I got some nice spin and definite power on my serve. I just kept coming up a bit short on my groundstrokes. The handle is also a bit short. I'm a 2 hander so my left hand was resting on the frame rather than the grip. I think had I gone oversize, I would of loved this racquet. It can be described with one word: butter. It was flexy but not too flexy. Had I been a control game type of a player, I would of thought this to be my holy grail. Unfortunately insane amounts of topspin and pace was what I play with and it didn't last. Luckily it found a good home with my friend John and I get to see it often (on the other side of the court). Weight - 12 ozString Pattern - 16 x 18Headsize - 95 sq inFlex - 58

Racquet History - Prince Precision 730

Prince Precision 730

In my haste to find more copies of the Precision Response, I stumbled across the Precision 730. Basically it looked like a POG but in longbody form and lighter in weight. It served great, but then again all I've always served well with longbody frames. I just couldn't get much pop off my strokes with it. My shots would be either way too big, or way too soft. It must of been the strings strung too low. Regardless it was a nice frame to have and I kind of felt like my idol Michael Chang out on the court with it (crossbar stabilizer). I should of given it more of a chance but it just didn't feel right to me.

Racquet History - Prince More Control

Prince More Control

When I realized the More Response wasn't really the sucessor to the Precision Response line, I found out about the More Control. Definitely more of a players racquet than the More Response, it was only 11.5 oz but felt much heavier. It also had a slightly smaller headsize at 97. Generally I was ok with the frame except for its stiffness. It made impact like a rock, almost pure driverish... Still it was a decent racquet but around this time, I was wary of the "More" line and wanted something with grommets and still in production. I will note that the color scheme was pretty sweet, with the white and black halfs.

Weight - 11.5 oz

String Pattern - 16 x 20

Headsize - 97 sq in

Flex - 71

Racquet History - Prince More Precision

Prince More Precision

I hated this racquet. After not being able to find another More Response, I picked this up. Thinner beam, felt even stiffer than the Response, and more heft. At this point I was taking huge cuts on the ball and it was definitely underpowered. Everything went over as powder puff shots. This didn't last long. I think if I would of dropped the tension it would of been ok, but it felt way too stiff for my liking despite the fact it had a thinner beam. It came with a leather grip too so that just threw everything even more off for me.

Weight - 11.5

String Pattern - 16 x 19

Headsize - 95 sq in

Balance - 7 pts HL

Flex - 66

Racquet History - Prince More Response

Prince More Response

Sadly though, after giving up tennis in college, I lost my precision response. after about a 5-6 year absense I set out to look for a new racquet. Sticking to what I knew, I found the next iteration of the Response. What I got was the More Response. I honestly took a huge liking to this racquet. It was light, but not too light (11 oz). HL but not too HL (4 pts). It had a nice open string pattern and although it had a thin beam, it had a 70 stiffness rating. I have to say it was the best racquet for me coming back. Not exactly a players racquet, but light enough and easy enough to play to get my strokes back (and I was basically starting from scratch...).

I actually will go on to say I loved this frame and I went through many loops to secure and hunt down backups for it. Ultimately though the grommetless design worked against the racquet. My many off center shots (more specifically, on the serve, hitting close to the upper hoop) would cause the strings to press against the edge of the holes. Since I was stringing polys on the mains at 61 lbs, this led to frequent breaks (sometimes days apart).

Since I couldn't find more backups (at a fair price) I was forced to really ramp up my quest for my next racquet. I still have fond memories of this racquet, and credit it for being there for me while I got back into the game I love, but I'll be the 1st to say it... it's a tweener stick and big departure from the Precision Response tradition.

Weight - 11.1 oz

String Pattern - 16 x 20

Headsize - 100 sq in

Balance - 4 pts HL

Flex - 70

Racquet History - Prince Precision Response

Prince Precision Response

For a long time, this was my holy grail. I loved this racquet. It took some initial getting used to b/c it was my 1st players racquet and with my skinny arms swinging around an 11+ oz frame. Plus it was my 1st headlight balanced racquet. It was also around this time ironically I transitioned my game from playing at the net to your basic counter puncher. My forehand was pretty much all spin, but my backhand was flat and hit most of the winners; this racquet was able to play both styles perfectly. This racquet gave me a ton of spin, and a decent pop on my strokes. I can't explain it, but it just felt right. The balance (headlight, but not too headlight), the spin (open 16x20 string pattern), the power (heavier but not too heavy), the flex (not too flexy, not too stiff), just everything. From here on out every racquet that I've liked has had specs that almost mirror the Precision Response.

Weight - 11.6 oz

String Pattern - 16 x 20

Headsize - 97 sq

Balance - 8 pts HL

Flex - 65

Racquet History - Prince Thunder 820

Prince Thunder 820

After messing around with aluminum frames, my parents finally decided I was worthy of upgrading to graphite. I knew I wanted a longbody (shorties like me and Michael Chang had them) and the thunder was within my parent's price point. I had some fond memories of this stick, but too bad it didn't last. What I do remember was I hitting blasts from the baseline. It was nice and light, and the extended length gave me something to really hold onto on my 2 hander.

My fondest memory of the racquet was a night time match I had against my dad. There was a thunderstorm brewing and I was on serve. It was Ad out, and I had to hold serve to force a tiebreaker. I remember tossing the ball up and about to strike, when my dad yelled out as loud as he could "BOOOOM!!!". Thinking I had been struck by lightning b/c of my longbody racquet, I let go and dropped to the floor. Then I heard the laughter, followed by "fault". I went on to double fault in anger and lose the match... good times.

The love affair didn't last long as I kept breaking the strings on this sucker every couple of days. Now I know I have always hit with alot of topspin, but I was only 14 years old... Alas, and luckily enough I ended up moving onto a frame that would influence my game in so many ways...

Length - 28"

String Pattern - ? ~ open

Weight - 10 oz

Racquet History - Wilson Air Kannon

Well being that it won't stop raining, I decided to go on a journey through memory lane. As you can probably tell I'm a huge gear head. I've played with a ton of frames and I thought I'd give my opinion on them.

Wilson Air Kannon

Yes, I had one of Wilson's aluminum knockoffs of their own Sledgehammer line. I remember it being really light (relatively), lots of vibration, and huge! I think while learning the game, I really can't provide much insight into the frame. Nevertheless you have to start somewhere and I started here.

I Think I might have a problem...

This is the most racquets I've ever had at any given time. Craziness to Recap...
3x Babolat Aeropro Drive Cortex
1x Babolat Aeropro Drive
1x Babolat Pure Drive Team+
2x Wilson k6.1 95 16x18
1x Wilson k6.1 95 18x20
4x Head FXP Radical
1x Head Microgel Radical
1x Prince More Response
1x Prince More Precision
1x Prince More Control DB
1x Prince Precision 730

17 racquets... craziness!

A quick hit with the mythical 6.0

If you know a thing or two about tennis, I'm sure you're aware of the myths and proclaimations of the Prostaff 6.0 as being the Holy Grail of racquets. I'm a religious scourer of cL and just happened to come across a posting for one for only 40 bucks! I immediately snatched it up, gave it a quick hit to see what the fuss was about and found it a new home for a nice profit.

My overall opinion of the racquet is simple, all the fluff of O3, microgel, flexpoint, [k]factor, is all marketing. The thing hits almost identically to the k6.1 tour just with a smaller sweetspot. It is rock solid, low powered, and definitely a player's racquet. I personally prefer a bit more bit on the ball for spin so it wasn't really for me. I even compared my Aeropro Drive and Aeropro Drive with Cortex and really found no real difference (with my rubberband vibe dampeners, without them, the APDC is slightly more muted).

Alright well onto tennis... the weathers been really shitty lately with all the rain. I had been making some good progress. Matchplay wise I lost a really bad match the other week. I usually can beat Luis as I have better groundstrokes and service, and i was ripping my service returns (weak point of mine) but couple points into the game I pop a string (about time, 2.5 months, thats a record). Unfortunately my backup APD's are full poly luxilons and by the time I found my groove with the racquet, I had already lost. 

I was pretty pissed but is my game really so fragile that a stick change effectively dropped me an entire NTRP point in ability? I thought that was pretty ridiculous but I do depend on alot of topspin to keep my shots in and being in the 3.5 range I guess i'm not still comfortable in adjusting my take on the ball to compensate yet.

Had a nice rally against Aaron as well (after brushing off some rust due to rain delays). My serve has taken the biggest hit as my 2nd serves aren't penetrating, and I'm just doing something wrong I'm not sure of with my serve. I plan on bringing out the video camera again to see what the hell is going on (been lazy, keep forgetting to charge the battery). No match play bc we were both rusty and the wind was just crazy.

Its back to basics next week and I'm planning to play alot of tennis to get my game back up to snuff.