Yesterday I spent a lovely day fiddling around with tennis rackets. At 10.23am there was a knock at the door, a smile came across my face as the postman had arrived with my parcel and the wife was at work, the baby in nursery just me alone waiting for my presents.
The day before two new yonex rdx500 mp's had been dropped off and I had spent most of that evening "getting my specs right" ha!
I took my time opening the parcel, like a cat playing with his prey, toying with it, making the moment last.....first out was a gamma 340x with tennis ball in hand I had a little hit against the kitchen wall (enough room to let it bounce) it felt soft for its stiffness, like the kps88 with the hoop flexing due to its relative stiffness in the throat. The head shape seemed old school, small, old donnay-like.........
Second out was the donnay platinum, sitting next to my rdx it looked like kylie minogue and adele in conversation. It is striking just how skinny this stick is, especially the tip. The hit against the wall was very surprising, I thought the flex on this racket was mid 60's or even 71ra as donnay led its to believe?? It felt mid 50's, like I was hitting some head racket from the eighties. Really plush with the feeling that there was a lot of power behind otts relative thinness. One problem that raised its head immediately tho was the instability at the top of the hoop where its really thin. I've added leather and 6g from 10-2 which seems to have helped. We'll see how it goes but my other modded rackets have supreme stability in the hoop, whether the beauty of its touch can sway me we'll soon see.
Lastly two volkl dnx10 mids and I just wanted to tell you of my surprise at the volkl, firstly one of disappointment as it felt like a brick when I took it out the box, I was confused as I'm used to rackets modded 20g heavier?? I thought there's not much room to move here, it felt cumbersome too, then I spotted the lead around the throat and bottom of hoop so I tidied them up, striped them down, made her sparkle
I was left with an unbelievable frame, the feel is just what I'm after, it feels just like my modded racks, there is obvious power on tap, control off stringed feels great and the head feels bigger and there's ample spin, it whips thro the air too, like the thin (plan profile) beamed racks I love. But after adding a leather grip and og to bring the balance to 31.5 cm, what I was so surprised at was the stability of this thing, it doesn't need any lead in the hoop!!
The rdx's was modded the precious evening with 8g in the hoop and about 15g in the handle. Its swinging beautifully but looks like a positive tank next to the others! Biggest problem here was the yonex grip as it is round like wilson and it makes the racket feel heavier and cumbersome to me so i took off all the mods and sanded down the top and bottom bevels and made the grip more rectangular. It worked, racket feels much better.
So they are my initial thoughts, the kitchen test so to speak. I'm looking forward to getting out 2moro and putting these babies through their paces.
It will be interesting to see how the donnay holds up against my mg600 mid and the dnx against the rdx. My recent twiddling with my prestige had resulted in some super tennis of late, I think what I'm most excited by is the stability and feel of the modded yonex and the volkl match my prestige but they have that open pattern that may give me a bit more.....besides my mg the dnx is leading the way in the excitement department and as no lead has been added there may have to be a slight tweaking after 2moro as it has the lowest swingweight.....