Tennis Warehouse Playtest: Head Graphene Touch Prestige Tour/Mid Racquet

vsbabolat · Feb 3, 2018

DonDiego said:
Head is a company. If they sold more Prestiges these last four years than they were selling the years before, then they made a good decision -- on purpose. Only the sales number will tell us if they made a good move or not.

Just an observation I have seen far, far less Prestige’s than I use to. The Prestige’s I do see for the most part are older models. I have barely seen any Graphene XT Prestige frame’s. In fact the Head Penn Official called the Prestige a niche model now. So there you go. It’s my firm belief that Head has no desire to have a Prestige that feels anything like the racquets that their loyal following want. They are chasing Babolat and Wilson. I had a friend hit with the Touch Prestige Mid (Rev Pro) and said it reminded him of the Wilson Pro Staff 97. Head no longer wants to have that unique solid feeling to their racquets. The solid feeling racquets that they do make are are only reserved for their players on the ATP and WTA Tours.

topspn · Feb 3, 2018

TennisHound said:
Good for you.

Okay, I didn’t feel that the racquet felt good enough in stock form to waste a set of strings on it. But Since you and @mitchman are so insistent that some magical power would be released by restringing it, I restrung it with Head Sonic Pro at 47lbs. Yes, it wasn’t as harsh, but guess what, it still feels hollow and brittle to me. Anyway, the strings did help a little.

Here’s my scores:
Power - 74
Control - 85
Groundstrokes - 83
Volleys - 83
Serves - 81
Touch - 79
Feel - 72
Returns - 80

Advantages - swings very fast with above average control. I was able to get some good spin on my second serves.

Disadvantages - Empty feel and lack of power especially on serves. Harsh outside sweetspot. Some instability against heavy topspin.

Lol, I am just sharing my experience and if yours is different then it's totally fine.

Imago · Feb 3, 2018

Head Sonic Pro is not a good match for the Touch rackets. Black Code (normal and 4S) are more superior with Touch Mid, Pro and MP. Not a trace of the previous G/XT tinny/brassy feel. Loads of Thud. The closest feel and sound to I.Prestige MP.

vsbabolat · Feb 3, 2018

Imago said:
Head Sonic Pro is not a good match for the Touch rackets. Black Code (normal and 4S) are more superior with Touch Mid, Pro and MP. Not a trace of the previous G/XT tinny/brassy feel. Loads of Thud. The closest feel and sound to I.Prestige MP.

My Touch Prestige Mid pinged

Imago · Feb 3, 2018

vsbabolat said:
My Touch Prestige Mid pinged

With Sonic Pro and no dampener, it did a little. But not like GXT.

TennisHound · Feb 4, 2018

Imago said:
Head Sonic Pro is not a good match for the Touch rackets. Black Code (normal and 4S) are more superior with Touch Mid, Pro and MP. Not a trace of the previous G/XT tinny/brassy feel. Loads of Thud. The closest feel and sound to I.Prestige MP.

$11.99 at Ac ademy right down the road

TennisHound · Feb 4, 2018

vsbabolat said:
My Touch Prestige Mid pinged

Yep, they all ping.

vsbabolat · Feb 4, 2018

TennisHound said:
Yep, they all ping.

And the Mid (Rev Pro) still feels hollow too

TennisHound · Feb 4, 2018

Edited

DonDiego · Feb 5, 2018

vsbabolat said:
As an owner of Pro Stock Prestige Classic that have been made within the last few years I can tell you they are identical. I can also report that the IG Prestige Mid was 95% there. Had that good thick buttery feel in a crisper layup.

I thought the Youtek Mid felt much better than the IG. The IG felt a bit "empty" or "hollow", for lack of a better word. The Youtek Mid is the best "feeling" racquet I have played with.

DonDiego · Feb 5, 2018

vsbabolat said:
Just an observation I have seen far, far less Prestige’s than I use to. The Prestige’s I do see for the most part are older models. I have barely seen any Graphene XT Prestige frame’s. In fact the Head Penn Official called the Prestige a niche model now. So there you go. It’s my firm belief that Head has no desire to have a Prestige that feels anything like the racquets that their loyal following want. They are chasing Babolat and Wilson. I had a friend hit with the Touch Prestige Mid (Rev Pro) and said it reminded him of the Wilson Pro Staff 97. Head no longer wants to have that unique solid feeling to their racquets. The solid feeling racquets that they do make are are only reserved for their players on the ATP and WTA Tours.

I agree with most of what you say. But Prestiges will soon disappear for the simple reason that very few young players wnat to use 95-inch, rather heavy racquets, let alone with a 18x20 pattern. The problem - for future sales - is the specs of the racquet, not the feel. That said, I am also confused by Head's strategy to alter feel but not the specs (think a 16x19 mp for example), though the 2018 "Tour" version is a step in that direction.

vsbabolat · Feb 5, 2018

DonDiego said:
I thought the Youtek Mid felt much better than the IG. The IG felt a bit "empty" or "hollow", for lack of a better word. The Youtek Mid is the best "feeling" racquet I have played with.

The YouTek Prestige Mid was stiff and very brassy (lots of vibration). The IG Prestige Mid has a very thick feel and makes the same thud off the string bed as the Prestige Classic 600

vsbabolat · Feb 5, 2018

DonDiego said:
I agree with most of what you say. But Prestiges will soon disappear for the simple reason that very few young players wnat to use 95-inch, rather heavy racquets, let alone with a 18x20 pattern. The problem - for future sales - is the specs of the racquet, not the feel. That said, I am also confused by Head's strategy to alter feel but not the specs (think a 16x19 mp for example), though the 2018 "Tour" version is a step in that direction.

I wonder why Wilson is having such huge success with the Ultra Tour and Blade 18x20..... maybe those racquets have a much nicer feel than what HEAD has done with the Prestige.

DonDiego · Feb 5, 2018

vsbabolat said:
I wonder why Wilson is having such huge success with the Ultra Tour and Blade 18x20..... maybe those racquets have a much nicer feel than what HEAD has done with the Prestige.

Both these racquets have bigger heads, slightly wider string spacing and are generally more forgiving and easy to use than a Prestige mp, especially the Blade.

I still don't see many Utra tour on the courts. Don't confuse huge success here on TW and huge success everywhere else.

DonDiego · Feb 5, 2018

vsbabolat said:
The YouTek Prestige Mid was stiff and very brassy (lots of vibration). The IG Prestige Mid has a very thick feel and makes the same thud off the string bed as the Prestige Classic 600

We clearly had different experience with the racquet.

vsbabolat · Feb 5, 2018

DonDiego said:
Both these racquets have bigger heads, slightly wider string spacing and are generally more forgiving and easy to use than a Prestige mp, especially the Blade.

I still don't see many Utra tour on the courts. Don't confuse huge success here on TW and huge success everywhere else.

I only report what I see in the real world. The string spacing is not worth with talking about. Also there is the Tecnifibre TFight 315 limited 18x20. Everyone is doing a better Prestige MP than HEAD. They invented the formula back in 1993 with the Radical Trisys 260 MP and now the competition do a better job.

Frans Bleker · Mar 24, 2018

vsbabolat said:
I only report what I see in the real world. The string spacing is not worth with talking about. Also there is the Tecnifibre TFight 315 limited 18x20. Everyone is doing a better Prestige MP than HEAD. They invented the formula back in 1993 with the Radical Trisys 260 MP and now the competition do a better job.

Do we actually know who is responsible for these bad Head frames? Did they have a change in personel? And is it known why Head is setting this course?

vsbabolat · Mar 24, 2018

Frans Bleker said:
Do we actually know who is responsible for these bad Head frames? Did they have a change in personel? And is it known why Head is setting this course?

My theory is HEAD knows how much love there is for their older racquets. So, they decided to make bad racquets. Because every 2 years there is speculation will this new Prestige finally have the feel again of the older models. That’s how they generate sales. You buy, try, and say I like the older HEAD racquets much more and go back to playing with them. I honestly think that’s HEAD’s business model now

Power Player · Mar 24, 2018

DonDiego said:
Both these racquets have bigger heads, slightly wider string spacing and are generally more forgiving and easy to use than a Prestige mp, especially the Blade.

I still don't see many Utra tour on the courts. Don't confuse huge success here on TW and huge success everywhere else.

Man you are all over the place. You make a thread proclaiming tight patterns and small head size the new jam and now you are saying they aren't? It makes no sense unless you just have impulsive thoughts that change like the wind.

J011yroger · Mar 24, 2018

Power Player said:
Man you are all over the place. You make a thread proclaiming tight patterns and small head size the new jam and now you are saying they aren't? It makes no sense unless you just have impulsive thoughts that change like the wind.

Big talk from a guy with a Babolat and a 93p in his bag!

J

Power Player · Mar 24, 2018

J011yroger said:
Big talk from a guy with a Babolat and a 93p in his bag!

J

Yes, which is why I don't make absolute proclamations. So far, all I have used since purchase is the 93. Let's see how long it goes.

Tennis Warehouse Playtest: Head Graphene Touch Prestige Tour/Mid Racquet

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