New Donnay X-Series - My Thoughts

[mark1]

What does the grip shape of the donnay feel similar to? Wilson, head, prince?

[Kal-El 34]

Originally Posted by JGads

Interesting reviews. I demoed a lot of these frames and the Dark Red actually felt better/not as mushy as the rest of the frames. Loved the playtest enough to buy one but have since struggled to find that zone I had during my month of playtesting it. The Dark Red really calls for a stiff/crisp feeling poly I think. The weighted buttcaps are a dynamite feature that I hope other companies will emulate moving forward.

i agree with you regarding the frame calling for a stiff / crisp polyester. you are def. allowed to disagree with my comments man i just post what i think of the racquet i hate the whole BLX line but a ton of people like them haha.... to each their own!

the weighted caps are nice, and the strips are also a nice feature if you feel the frame needs some weight in the head. they really let you be pretty accurate with weighting, without having to try and line up lead tape. that and you can mix some colors and customize even more

[bertrevert]

Originally Posted by Kal-El 34

you hit it right on the money here. i really think the yellow, white, orange, and even red 99 are great racquets for juniors. The light weight of the yellow, matched with how easy it is to swing, spin potential and feel I believe makes it pretty superior to other racquets in its category. it again, is a little pricier than the other frames close to it, but the feel and control compared to the others is way better.

Perhaps you will have s hot at the great White

But even if you don't, from your quote above, how on earth do they get the desired "feel and control" out of such a thin beam?

I can buy the notion that the thinner beam promotes feel, gobs of flexy sexy feel, but when they go as thin as 15mm or 17mm how on earth is control maintained? Is this to do with the layup or again the Xenecore throughout? I would think at these beam width you'd be looking at something strong as a noodle, hence loss of control.

[WinNCash]

Originally Posted by Kal-El 34

you hit it right on the money here. i really think the yellow, white, orange, and even red 99 are great racquets for juniors. The light weight of the yellow, matched with how easy it is to swing, spin potential and feel I believe makes it pretty superior to other racquets in its category. it again, is a little pricier than the other frames close to it, but the feel and control compared to the others is way better.

I am going to be picking up a couple of the Yellow racquets and am excited to get playing. Sorry I hope you didn't think I was hijacking your reviews.

[WinNCash]

Originally Posted by bertrevert

Perhaps you will have s hot at the great White

But even if you don't, from your quote above, how on earth do they get the desired "feel and control" out of such a thin beam?

I can buy the notion that the thinner beam promotes feel, gobs of flexy sexy feel, but when they go as thin as 15mm or 17mm how on earth is control maintained? Is this to do with the layup or again the Xenecore throughout? I would think at these beam width you'd be looking at something strong as a noodle, hence loss of control.

From Donnay's website:

Due to the unique characteristics of XēneCore™, RAs should not be used to compare power against graphite racquets because of their hollow nature and lack of mass. All graphite racquets are hollow so power has been measured by stiffness and swing weight only. In actuality, mass is an important factor in measuring the Coefficient of Restitution and "Power" which is actually velocity. See Wikipedia Reference. Hollow racquets have little mass to help increase the Coefficient of Restitution and velocity. The density of mass also increases reflex speed and increases velocity. Analogize horsepower vs. torque in generating automobile velocity.

I actually had to convince myself that the X-Yellow (at 10.6 oz) was lighter than the EXO3 Graphite 100 (at 11.6 oz) when I picked them up. I asked both my folks which one they thought was lighter and they both picked the Prince at first, even though it is a full ounce heavier. I guess what I am saying is that I could feel the difference in mass (not weight) between that racquet and the other two I demo'd. The mass argument makes sense to me, but what do I know? Hahaha!

[morten]

Originally Posted by Kal-El 34

i agree with you regarding the frame calling for a stiff / crisp polyester. you are def. allowed to disagree with my comments man i just post what i think of the racquet i hate the whole BLX line but a ton of people like them haha.... to each their own!

the weighted caps are nice, and the strips are also a nice feature if you feel the frame needs some weight in the head. they really let you be pretty accurate with weighting, without having to try and line up lead tape. that and you can mix some colors and customize even more

did you feel any difference in swingweight between the black and blue 94s?

[morten]

Originally Posted by Kal-El 34

i agree with you regarding the frame calling for a stiff / crisp polyester. you are def. allowed to disagree with my comments man i just post what i think of the racquet i hate the whole BLX line but a ton of people like them haha.... to each their own!

the weighted caps are nice, and the strips are also a nice feature if you feel the frame needs some weight in the head. they really let you be pretty accurate with weighting, without having to try and line up lead tape. that and you can mix some colors and customize even more

did you feel any difference in swingweight between the black and blue 94s?

[morten]

Originally Posted by Kal-El 34

i agree with you regarding the frame calling for a stiff / crisp polyester. you are def. allowed to disagree with my comments man i just post what i think of the racquet i hate the whole BLX line but a ton of people like them haha.... to each their own!

the weighted caps are nice, and the strips are also a nice feature if you feel the frame needs some weight in the head. they really let you be pretty accurate with weighting, without having to try and line up lead tape. that and you can mix some colors and customize even more

did you feel any difference in swingweight between the black and blue 94s?

[bertrevert]

Originally Posted by WinNCash

I actually had to convince myself that the X-Yellow (at 10.6 oz) was lighter than the EXO3 Graphite 100 (at 11.6 oz) when I picked them up. I asked both my folks which one they thought was lighter and they both picked the Prince at first, even though it is a full ounce heavier. I guess what I am saying is that I could feel the difference in mass (not weight) between that racquet and the other two I demo'd. The mass argument makes sense to me, but what do I know? Hahaha!

Good point! So mass is felt force, a certain resistance, providing the thwack back?

I have to think that since most modern racquets are hollow that a differentiator in the feel department would have to be from something like filling the hollow core. Sounds very interesting indeed. Fail to truly understand how adding mass couldn't add swingweight, but if it doesn't then I guess greater mass meeting the incoming ball helps in the "Coefficient of Restitution" that they refer to.

Yet the swingweight for the Donnay white 99 is a paltry Swingweight: 295, and that just doesn't seem enough to me - is mass going to save me on court?

ps. does Rusedski in any way haunt the halls of Donnay Castle anymore? I hope not...

[morten]

Originally Posted by bertrevert

Good point! So mass is felt force, a certain resistance, providing the thwack back?

I have to think that since most modern racquets are hollow that a differentiator in the feel department would have to be from something like filling the hollow core. Sounds very interesting indeed. Fail to truly understand how adding mass couldn't add swingweight, but if it doesn't then I guess greater mass meeting the incoming ball helps in the "Coefficient of Restitution" that they refer to.

Yet the swingweight for the Donnay white 99 is a paltry Swingweight: 295, and that just doesn't seem enough to me - is mass going to save me on court?

ps. does Rusedski in any way haunt the halls of Donnay Castle anymore? I hope not...

sw 295 is unstrung, about 325 strung..

[suppawat]

Originally Posted by Kal-El 34

i agree with you regarding the frame calling for a stiff / crisp polyester. you are def. allowed to disagree with my comments man i just post what i think of the racquet i hate the whole BLX line but a ton of people like them haha.... to each their own!

the weighted caps are nice, and the strips are also a nice feature if you feel the frame needs some weight in the head. they really let you be pretty accurate with weighting, without having to try and line up lead tape. that and you can mix some colors and customize even more

I and my friends demoed X-Dark Red a few times, and we kind of had a mixed feeling. At first, the racquet was strung with Kirschbaum Pro Line II, no one liked it. It's hard to explain the feel but we knew the racquet and string didn't work well together. Later we changed to a test multifilament string (the one that TW passed around people in the forum), that has a crisp feel of synthetic gut and softness of multifilament. Now people start to like this mixture.



Anyway, I like your review a lot. Not many people can write the feeling into words as good as you do. Keep it up.

[Kal-El 34]

Originally Posted by morten

did you feel any difference in swingweight between the black and blue 94s?

not really noticeable. only difference between the two seems to be in stiffness and color obviously

[Kal-El 34]

i saw the new 104 Donnay is coming out with during my meeting today as well. the new frame for alexandra stevenson. VERY nice looking racquet for the ladies i can't say anymore on it though sorry board!

[10ACE]

Originally Posted by Kal-El 34

i saw the new 104 Donnay is coming out with during my meeting today as well. the new frame for alexandra stevenson. VERY nice looking racquet for the ladies i can't say anymore on it though sorry board!

also the racquet that courier plays with is set to come to market- it's not the 99 they sell now- and most likely the line will drop the red or orange 99

[Kal-El 34]

Donnay X-Blue 99 Review

I think maybe i have enjoyed my time with the blue 99 the most of all the mix. Whereas I enjoyed the black 94 being a bit more flexy than the blue 94, this was not the case with the 99 line. I think the blue 99 being a bit stiffer works better with the 99 sq. in. head. Think blue 94 with the pop I felt that the 94 was lacking. The headsize does not feel like a 99 really. honestly felt like I was swinging a 95 around.

GROUNDSTROKES 9/10
This might just be the best racquet for groundstrokes i have ever hit. It has everything that I liked about the blue 94, but with some extra pop off the strings. the 16x20 string pattern works really well. I noticed a rediculous amount of control on both sides from the baseline. I have been absolutely crushing my forehand. The more i hit with this one, the more I like it as well. I spent 8 hours on the court with it today and realized how much I was having fun with it this afternoon. Pair the power with really heavy topspin and we have a winner here. My two handed backhand was really coming off the racquet with great power as well. My slice backhand was also seeing some improved bite. The weight of the racquet is the same as with the 94, and the 99 did not feel bulky whatsover. In fact i felt like it moved through the air even easier than the 94. All in all this frame performed very well in just about every area I can think of from the baseline. I am very impressed

VOLLEYS 8.5/10

I am up in the air on whether or not the 94 or the 99 performs better at the net. But since I said in my 94 review it was one of the best sticks at the net I've ever hit, that should say something here as well. i felt the 99 was a bit quicker through the air from the baseline than the 94, but not a quick at the net. The frame is still extremely stable, with a large sweetspot. Driving volleys were effortless and felt really good. Reflex volleys were also very good. The bigger head came in handy in just getting a little more string on the ball as well. Touch shots were also very easy to come by with the blue 99. It seems no matter how hard someone hits a shot at me, i can turn it into a drop volley no problem.

SERVES 9/10

CANNON alert! LOVE serving with the blue 99. The extra pop is much appreciated when seving here. i felt extremely confident serving in all areas of the court. I could easily dial up my normal power on my flat serve. I was striking flat serves down the T about as good as i ever have. i was also getting tremendous amounts of spin, whether it be kick or slice. I really enjoyed hitting slice serves out wide on the deuce side. I could go bit with it, or get nasty with the spin and was hitting some extreme angles.

I have not had a ton of time to play around with weighting on the blue 99 yet. I have the lether grip removed, 5g cap in the handle and no strips currently. I will be tinkering around with this one some more and seeing if i can make it anymore lethal as well.

OVERALL 9/10

This is probably going to be my go to racquet from the Donnay line. I have been back and forth between a few of the frames, but every time I hit this frame I get a great vibe. I hit my groundstrokes and serve the best with this one, and the volleys are still rock solid. Again the racquet it pretty heavy, but if you like a heavy frame, this is def. worth checking out. Weight and balance are nice, string pattern is great, and all the things I liked about the blue 94 but with the pop I was looking for... what's not to like?

[Kal-El 34]

Originally Posted by 10ACE

also the racquet that courier plays with is set to come to market- it's not the 99 they sell now- and most likely the line will drop the red or orange 99

i think you are accurate here as well. I have a prototype of one of the new player frames coming out next. I will see if I can post a pic of it without getting slammed by the compnay when I get it this week.

[Kal-El 34]

Donnay X-Red 99

cosmetically looks just like the 94 red. same smoke color as all of them fading into the red. This is one of the frames that I have had some time to both hit with and extensively mess with the weighting systems.

for me the red 99 played the best with the 5 gram cap in the handle, and the 3 gram strips at 9:00 and 3:00. The standard 1g strips were fine, but i like the 3 better.

the frame felt very good in it's stock weight with no strips as well.

really all things considered, i did not care for the frame as much with the 10g cap and no strips. it altered the balance a bit too much for my liking and made the frame feel a little to whippy for me.

GROUNDSTROKES 8.5/10

This is an incredibly smooth stick from the baseline. I tend to agree a lot with the tenniswarehouse review of this frame. A great blend of power / control. if you are looking for a little more flexible 99 sq. in. than the blue, you are in for a treat with this one. One thing I noticed was that the depth of my shots seemed much improved over my usual with YT prestige mps. i loved how consitently I was striking the ball with this frame. I originally thought the black and blue would be too heavy for an 8 hour day on court, so i initially went to this. A little more power, from a softer feel on the groundies. My topspin forehand was realling working well, and I felt like I could take big cuts at the ball again with this frame. It did seem that although I was hitting topspin, the ball was coming off the strings a bit flatter than with some of the others. The frame is still rather balanced, but it felt a bit more whippy on my two handed backhand. once i added a little weight to the frame, it seemed to perform a little better as well. Return of serve again was very stable, whether I was getting aggressive on a weak serve, or just blocking back a big one. both felt very good to me.

VOLLEYS 7/10

the red 99 did not perform as good at the net in my opinion as some of the others. if i were strictly a baseliner, i may consider this frame a lot more than i did. it is pretty solid, but i did notice a bit of vibration from the frame on off center hits. I was still volleying pretty effectively with the red, but it left me wanting more. i could still drive the ball deep into the court on just about any volley rather effectively. however, it was the touch shots that didn't feel as good as I was getting with say the blue 99. the flexibility of this racquet did impress me on reflex volleys. i wasn't getting a ton of them, but they are reflext volleys haha. I was however getting more of them back than normal, which let me work back into a few points I feel I normally may have lost. All in all a good stick at the net, I just preferred the feel of some of the others really. Very easy to make contact and drive the ball, but simply lacked a bit of feel at times.

SERVE 8/10

The red 99 is a pretty nice serving frame. The first thing I noticed about it was how comfortable it felt when striking the serve. Because the frame is a bit lighter, it was very easy to get racquet head speed when going big on the serve. like on the groundstrokes, I did tend to notice a little flatter ball coming off the strings than I did with the others. Because I like booming flat serves, I did enjoy crushing flat ones at some of my players haha. With some of the other frames, I was going for more slice and kick... but with the red I liked going flatter. Slice still came off with quite a bit of bit, but my kick seemed like it wasn't doing too much. Favorite serve with the red was a big flat one out wide on the ad side. i was hitting bombs pretty far out wide, and very consistently as well. Overall I was pretty impressed with the red 99 while serving.

OVERALL 7.5-8/10

Overall this is a pretty impressive racquet. I like the fact that it is a bit lighter in weight. This allows for more comfortable use of the customization kit, which I did enjoy. I really did enjoy hitting groundstrokes with this racquet - especially my forehand. My backhand got a little whippy at times, but it was still smooth and comfortable when striking the ball at all paces. Although the frame performed well at the net (better than my prestige, but not as well as others in the Donnay line) I did prefer volleying with the heavier racquets that Donnay has put out a little better. Serving was good with the red 99 as well. It you are a flat hitter, this may be the racquet for you. If you tried the 94 version of the red, and liked the feel but thought it a bit heavy, then look no further than the 99 red... give it a go

[bertrevert]

Does the White have a thinned bridge?

This photo makes it look like it does but it might be just the decal lettering and the lighting.

Like the Microgel Radical did for instance.

[db379]

Does anyone know how these new Donnays 94 play compared to the old Pro One Intld? I'd like to see a comparison if possible because the Pro Onoe Intld was a nice, flexy, solid feeling racquet, and you guys seem to find similar attributes in the new sticks.

[Kal-El 34]

Originally Posted by db379

Does anyone know how these new Donnays 94 play compared to the old Pro One Intld? I'd like to see a comparison if possible because the Pro Onoe Intld was a nice, flexy, solid feeling racquet, and you guys seem to find similar attributes in the new sticks.

yea a nice new start for donnay with the x series. nice looking line, thin beamed, with that classic flexy solid feel. there are models that offer a stiffer feel as well, but with the black, red, and dark red, that old school feel is there for sure.