Hi all,
I am asking for a friend (I know how that sounds...):
50 y/o, I would say 4.0-4.5 NTRP, big (muscles) and tall (would guess 190cm+).
Very strong (fast) serve for his level, both forehand and 2h-backhand with a lot of pace, rather flat shots.
Tactics are to hit the other guy off the court, either through them or past them.
He started playing with the Wilson Ultra 100 V4 a while ago (somewhere last year before/during the summer). He absolutely loves the racquet, but there is one problem: he is breaking all strings after 2-6 hours of play at the top of the frame in the hoop.
It happens when he hits the ball close to the top of the stringbed, but he always used to do that and with his old racquets (don't know which he played with) he never had the problem.
He tried everything, had a shop check the racquets and replace the grommets. It still happens with all 3 frames he bought.
A team mate of his (experienced stringer) tried almost every poly string we could think of. I think when they moved to rather soft poly strings, it seemed to be a bit better, but it still happens after latest 4-6 hours, which is unacceptable for him (effort of having them restrung every time).
With all the string experimentation he even started to feel the elbow a bit last week, but I would attest that to the constant string switches. He has never had problems with elbow/shoulder/wrist before, even as he played a very stiff frame now for quite some time.
Now I have 2 questions:
1. anybody ever experienced the same? Any explanation why this would happen with a batch of racquets of the same model, even when the grommets were replaced?
2. he is coming to the realization, that he might have to move on. Any idea what racquet plays the closest to the Ultra V4? As I said, he loves the racquet...
Unfortunately I cannot help from personal experience, as I am in a totally different racquet area.
With input from reviews, knowledge, discussions, I selected the following models that could play similar (all specs from Tenniswarehouse-Europe, added the Wilson Ultra as a reference):
I ranked the racquets to the order which I would recommend to go testing, the Blackout seems to be closest (SW, Stiffness, Beam), Pure Drive little bit more SW, Shift bit less stiff but maybe he wants to stick to Wilson.
Thoughts?
Thank you all for your support!
I am asking for a friend (I know how that sounds...):
50 y/o, I would say 4.0-4.5 NTRP, big (muscles) and tall (would guess 190cm+).
Very strong (fast) serve for his level, both forehand and 2h-backhand with a lot of pace, rather flat shots.
Tactics are to hit the other guy off the court, either through them or past them.
He started playing with the Wilson Ultra 100 V4 a while ago (somewhere last year before/during the summer). He absolutely loves the racquet, but there is one problem: he is breaking all strings after 2-6 hours of play at the top of the frame in the hoop.
It happens when he hits the ball close to the top of the stringbed, but he always used to do that and with his old racquets (don't know which he played with) he never had the problem.
He tried everything, had a shop check the racquets and replace the grommets. It still happens with all 3 frames he bought.
A team mate of his (experienced stringer) tried almost every poly string we could think of. I think when they moved to rather soft poly strings, it seemed to be a bit better, but it still happens after latest 4-6 hours, which is unacceptable for him (effort of having them restrung every time).
With all the string experimentation he even started to feel the elbow a bit last week, but I would attest that to the constant string switches. He has never had problems with elbow/shoulder/wrist before, even as he played a very stiff frame now for quite some time.
Now I have 2 questions:
1. anybody ever experienced the same? Any explanation why this would happen with a batch of racquets of the same model, even when the grommets were replaced?
2. he is coming to the realization, that he might have to move on. Any idea what racquet plays the closest to the Ultra V4? As I said, he loves the racquet...
Unfortunately I cannot help from personal experience, as I am in a totally different racquet area.
With input from reviews, knowledge, discussions, I selected the following models that could play similar (all specs from Tenniswarehouse-Europe, added the Wilson Ultra as a reference):
| Manufacturer | Model | Head size | String pattern | Weight unstrung | Balance | Balance unstrung | Swing weight | Stiffness | Beam |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wilson | Ultra 100 v4 | 100 | 16x19 | 300 | 33 | 32 | 317 | 70 | 24/26.5/24.5 |
| Solinco | Blackout 100 | 100 | 16x19 | 300 | 32.51 | 31.5 | 316 | 71 | 23.5/26/23 |
| Babolat | Pure Drive | 100 | 16x19 | 300 | 33 | 32 | 320 | 71 | 23/26/23 |
| Wilson | Shift | 99 | 16x19 | 300 | 32.4 | 31 | 320 | 68 | 23.5/23.5/23.5 |
| Yonex | Ezone 100 | 100 | 16x19 | 300 | 32.7 | 32 | 317 | 67 | 23.8/26.5/22.5 |
| Head | Extreme MP | 100 | 16x19 | 300 | 33 | 32 | 322 | 66 | 23/26/21 |
I ranked the racquets to the order which I would recommend to go testing, the Blackout seems to be closest (SW, Stiffness, Beam), Pure Drive little bit more SW, Shift bit less stiff but maybe he wants to stick to Wilson.
Thoughts?
Thank you all for your support!
