Andre Agassi former equipment

[Automatix]

I thought it went more or less like this:
Prince Original Graphite OS till 1989
Donnay Pro One OS 1989-1993
Radical Trisys 260 OS, then painted as Tour TT 690, Ti Radicala OS, i.Radicala OS, LM Radicala OS oraz FXP Radicala OS...
During the doubles match at Wimbledon (new roof event) he had a YT Radicala OS painjob.

There were some changes like:
US Open 2003 Prestige Classic 660 cm2
Clay season 2005 - LM Instincta.

But I have no idea if I got this straight...

[Rabbit]

Originally Posted by ollinger

Probably no coincidence that the greatest returner in memory used an OS. I still find that when my game is off a bit, I play better with the forgiveness of an oversize. Maybe this is why an overweight Serena, using a near-OS (104), can devote relatively little time to the tour and just show up and win slams.

Yes, but then how does one explain how the other greatest returner in memory used a frame smaller than a wood racquet? Jimmy Connors used a frame, the T2000, and returned as well as Agassi. Some might say he was a better returner since he had less real estate to work with...

[Gorecki]

Originally Posted by Rabbit

Yes, but then how does one explain how the other greatest returner in memory used a frame smaller than a wood racquet? Jimmy Connors used a frame, the T2000, and returned as well as Agassi. Some might say he was a better returner since he had less real estate to work with...

some also claim that Andre Agassi was the cleanest Ball striker bar none and that he would do that fine with a 65 sq inch wood frame... the kind that he used while only a baby....

that would be Brad Gilbert... you may heard of him!

and that other great returner is\was using a granny frame these days... the Prince Mono...

in a nutshell, it was not the frame that made Agassi and Connors great returners... it was the player!

[Rabbit]

Originally Posted by Gorecki

some also claim that Andre Agassi was the cleanest Ball striker bar none and that he would do that fine with a 65 sq inch wood frame... the kind that he used while only a baby....

that would be Brad Gilbert... you may heard of him!

and that other great returner is\was using a granny frame these days... the Prince Mono...

in a nutshell, it was not the frame that made Agassi and Connors great returners... it was the player!

So then you agree, it is a surprise....

[Gorecki]

Originally Posted by Rabbit

So then you agree, it is a surprise....

but of course i do...

in gear, "The Rabbit Man" is one to look for!!!!

[vsbabolat]

Originally Posted by Automatix

I thought it went more or less like this:
Prince Original Graphite OS till 1989
Donnay Pro One OS 1989-1993
Radical Trisys 260 OS, then painted as Tour TT 690, Ti Radicala OS, i.Radicala OS, LM Radicala OS oraz FXP Radicala OS...
During the doubles match at Wimbledon (new roof event) he had a YT Radicala OS painjob.

There were some changes like:
US Open 2003 Prestige Classic 660 cm2
Clay season 2005 - LM Instincta.

But I have no idea if I got this straight...

That is how I remember it...

[Automatix]

Originally Posted by vsbabolat

That is how I remember it...

WOW! Confirmation from VS. +1 to my equipment NTRP

Thx for the feedback

[jimbo333]

Originally Posted by Aces09

I heard a rumor that he also had a custom string pattern, with something like 20 main strings? I guess that's expected since he was one of the few using an OS head.

This is correct.

I have a photo of him using TT Radical Tour (zebra), which definitely had 20 mains and 21 crosses.

[ericsson]

Originally Posted by jimbo333

This is correct.

I have a photo of him using TT Radical Tour (zebra), which definitely had 20 mains and 21 crosses.

Correctomundo

[Gorecki]

Originally Posted by jimbo333

This is correct.

I have a photo of him using TT Radical Tour (zebra), which definitely had 20 mains and 21 crosses.

Originally Posted by ericsson

Correctomundo

My.. that is indeed so! that took me as a surprise! guess it was limited period of time!

[ericsson]

Originally Posted by Prestige Classic

Agassi also used the 20-main pattern during at least part of his "Radical 260" days. Do I recall this correctly, the Kevlar that Agassi used had been discontinued in reels, available then only in half-sets as part of hybrids that couldn't reach 20 mains, so the outside two mains had to be strung with the VS Megalife(?) 1.40 cross. The VS itself must have been custom-cut as I don't see a normal 12m set being good for much more than one frame with a bunch left over.

Yes you are right, it was VS megalife 1.40mm, i still use it in a hybrid and love it, a shame they dont make it no more, its also very tough and good for higher tensions.

[フェデラー]

why is agassi so weird?

[Puddy]

Originally Posted by vsbabolat

That is how I remember it...

I can sort of remember him using a widebody Donnay in Germany circa 1992 when he was fat and ugly yet he had the fastest serve throughout the tournament. Perhaps it was the Donnay Ghost or something like that?

[Puddy]

Originally Posted by ericsson

Yes you are right, it was VS megalife 1.40mm, i still use it in a hybrid and love it, a shame they dont make it no more, its also very tough and good for higher tensions.

Notice the last mains being different from the others?

[NoNameZ]

never knew about the custom string pattern. Thanks for the pics. I also heard he used a POG OS with a Donnay PJ. You could tell from the crossbar i heard.

[ericsson]

Originally Posted by Puddy

I can sort of remember him using a widebody Donnay in Germany circa 1992 when he was fat and ugly yet he had the fastest serve throughout the tournament. Perhaps it was the Donnay Ghost or something like that?

No it was the Ultimate Pro, a thick beamed quite powerful racket that at first he liked and played with it in a exhibition. Then later used in a tournament (Hamburg 1990) and lost, then he switched in the middle of a match to his old Pro One and stick with it, later Agassi said he wanted easy power, he also said when he went back to the Pro One "it's like going back to an old friend"
He could hit with condifidence again and reached the final of the FO.

[HoVa]

I think its pretty cool that agassi tried different things.

if it didn't work out, he never hesitated to change and try something else.

[ace0001a]

Andre Agassi was and still is my favorite tennis player. I too think it's great that he was willing to adjust his equipment through the years and when you think about it, wasn't too different than what Jimmy Connors (another great returner) did through his career...maybe even chalk it up to great minds think alike. I lost count of how many racquets Andre went through, but I do remember most of the early ones.

Back in the late 80s, the Prince Graphite Oversize was a very popular racquet. When I got into tennis while I was in highschool in the late 80s, I remember seeing that racquet around alot. Of course you saw the likes of Andre Agassi, Michael Chang, Gabriella Sabatini and Monica Seles using it as well as many junior players at the time. To me, the Prince Graphite Oversize is one of 2 distictive racquets of that era...with the other being the Wilson Pro Staff [Original 6.0] that was used by the likes of Pete Sampras, Jim Courier and other lesser known pros as well as many junior players at the time. I owned one myself and thought it was a very solid feeling and performing racquet.

By the time the 80's were about to close, Andre's contract with Prince ran out or was outbid by Donnay. Donnay had created a neon-yellow/dark-blue racquet called the Pro One for him and apparently he didn't like it. I recall many reports and seeing pictures of Andre using an all black racquet with a Donnay logo painted on the strings that looked supsiciously like a Prince Graphite OS. Donnay apparently produced a full batch of the original Pro One to sell and apparently were in a bind of sorts with Agassi since he stopped using it. I bought one and thought it felt similar to the Prince Graphite, but obviously I wasn't professional tennis player and I honestly couldn't tell it was any worse of a racquet. I then later read that Donnay went back to the drawing board, studied the Prince Graphite more closely and came to the conclusion that they had to stiffen up the shafts because they couldn't copy Prince's cross bar. So when Andre started using the Pro One again, I always looked closely at it in pictures and noticed it had a different beam profile to my the original Pro One that I owned and realized they had reworked it for him. Eventhough it was the same colors (neon-yellow/dark-blue), it was a different racquet than the consumer version.

In the spring of 1990, I watched on TV Agassi play an exhibition tournment called the AT&T Challenge in Atlanta that was played on green clay. He was using this prototype widebody racquet (which some were saying was codenamed the "ghost") that was all black. I remember he kicked butt at the tournament and was hitting the crap out of the tennis balls. After the matches, I remember him saying how he was liking the development of the racquet and how it was adding more power to his game. The AT&T Challenge at the time was considered one of many warm-up tournaments for the French Open since it was being played on clay, albeit green clay. Later that spring I remember watching Agassi playing his first round match of the French Open with that racquet. Apparently he was having a hard time controlling the ball and he broke one or two of them in frustration. He later had his good old trusty Pro-Ones flown in and he went on to make it all the way to the final of the French Open that year. Donnay later released that racquet as the "Ultimate Pro" that was painted in a neon-pink/medium-gray scheme and I bought one of them too. I remember it feeling very much like a Prince Graphite/Pro One, but in a widebody format and offering much more power. But like anything else I make a hobby of, I sold it after using it for a while.

I remember not long after or around the same time, Donnay finally released the actual Pro One that Agassi was using in the same neon-pink/medium-gray color scheme as the Ultimate Pro. They called that version the "Pro One Limited Edition" and the beam cross section was very rectangular (similar to a Prince Graphite), whereas the original Pro One had a more oval cross section. Agassi won his first grandslam ('92 Wimbledon) with that racquet. I bought one of course and I'd have to say that it felt much more like the Prince Graphite than the first version did. I sold my original Pro One to a friend years ago, but I still do own a Pro One LE (although I can't find it at the moment). I remember seeing Agassi use a 3rd color scheme Pro One that was something like red/blue/silver and I think that was the last Pro One he used before his contract ran out with Donnay. Sometime around 1993, he switched to Head and I recall Donnay pulling out of the US market not too long after.

I recall Andre's first Head racquet was designed from their Tour Series models at the time and they called it the "Radical". It was bright yellow and black, the same oversize format as all of his other racquets and again had that similar feel to the Prince Graphite. I bought one of course and I was describe it as feeling like all of his other racquets before, but lighter. I guess since he like to tweak his equipment, perhaps he was trying to gain more racquet head speed by going with a lighter racquet, or racquets becoming lighter is simply part of the progression of technology, or a little of both. Either way, that yellow and black Head Radical became the 2nd racquet he'd win a Grand Slam with...he went on to win the 94 US Open and 95 Australian Open with it.

Of course his tweaking continued and I believe Andre changed to a different/newer Radical sometime midway through 1995. After that I lost track of which racquet he was using, but I do know he went through several iterations of the Radical and obviously Head is still producing a version of the Radical these days. Still I think it was part of Andre Agassi's style to be dynamic with equipment changes...something I thought was cool and set him apart from the arguably boring ways of other players.

[tlimster]

Thanks for a great post and review of Agassi's rackets. I still have a pair of his Pro One oversize widebody rackets, the pink and grey ones. I had three but broke one in play. You're right, they are pretty powerful, but I think less so than the Pure Drive or other more modern rackets. Definitely a bigger hitter than the POG, though.

[Dangus]

Very nice post ace0001a, welcome to the forum!