I asked Juan Martin about his rackets a couple of days ago and they are the same as the ones he was using previously, however do not feel the same.
He would have continued using his old rackets but considering his break from tennis following his multiple wrist surgeries, he decided that it was time to get new rackets made.
Given his surgeries, and the resulting requirement to prolong his career, he switched to natural gut crosses. This could be the main reason that his new rackets do not feel like his old ones. Plus his old rackets had been used for many years, had been restrung hundreds of times and had hit tens of thousands of balls.
Juan Martin does not know what racket is under his paint scheme. The overwhelming majority of players do not know what racket is under their paint scheme. However they know if they like it or not; how the racket plays and feels is extremely important to the players, and they will test different rackets occasionally to see if there is anything better available to them.
Only the manufacturer knows the composition and exact specifications of the rackets they provide to the players. Although there are a few players with completely custom molds and string patterns (i.e.
Alexandr Dolgopolov), I believe that the manufacturer will try to get most players to use of their “standard” molds and drill patterns. It costs a lot of time and money to create new custom molds and drill patterns, and it is much easier for them to use one of their current molds and tweak the composition or materials during the layup process to suit the player.
Back to Juan Martin’s rackets though.
I do not believe that he is using a custom mold. I believe he is using the same mold as the 6.1 line with a 95 square inch headsize and an 18 x 20 drill pattern.
Below are some comparison pictures between Juan Martin’s racket and two rackets from other Wilson sponsored players, Kyle Edmund (left) and Dusan Lajovic (right):
It is highly likely that there are differences in the composition and specifications of these rackets, however having held and studied them in detail, they all share the same mold, headsize and string pattern.
I hope this can help to clarify the situation with Juan Martin’s rackets.
ProStringing