Estusa Connors (yellow 90 pro legend classic)

I was excited when I received my Pro Legend Classic years back. Then as I began to inspect it I noticed that it was only 90 square inches at most, and not 97 as marked....the swollen pws like bumps at 12, 5 and 7 o'clock were all too farmiliar. I reached into the vaulted and pulled out a slazenger phantom 90, they were identical!!!

here's what I found:
#1-unlike what happened with Boris Beckers contract, inwhich his famous racquet was cloned, when Estusa took over Slazenger's mold and contract with Connors, they elusively PJ'ed the Phantom 90 neon yellow: a shocking never before seen bold graphic move that had enormous impact on the future of racquet cosmetics

but not only did they steal the triple taper beam,

the unique pws, and the aerodynamic grommet technology


they also completed the decimation of a brand by stealing the detailed description of the racquet and its numerous unique technologies, and some of the feng shui graphics as well. This was fated to literally be the next "prostaff", .....but alas it was not to be.

in addition to stealing the "strategically positioned amorphous metal" jargon (describing the swollen prostaff bumps), and taking the description of their frame directly form the original slazenger...

Estusa was the Mike Tyson of companies, once brilliant, huge, famous, flashy, magical and bold, yet despite a top presence on the pro tour Estusa, with its amazing racquets and funny name, is no more, so we bow our heads, and remember when we hadn't seen it all, when you couldn't get it all, and when racquets felt softer and nicer. Back then not everyone felt like they had to play the number one players racquet, and get a new one every season. Back then racquets didn't all look and feel the same. Back in the renaissance (80's), before the desolate wateland that brought us here with graphite in out hearts, ready to build this new world!

rare early photo from racquetopia
L to R
(Virginia, Bud, Plasma, Deuce, Jorel)

we remember the time before classic racquet talk, before our racquet colony, when we walked alone like the animals, but then we comes together, with the knowin of doin an makin things from times past, we gather for the knowing and doing of the pws and the CAP grommet, the braided graphite and boron the promise of our morrow morrow land, "keep trekkin"

I'm beginning to think that Estusa never came up with an original design.

the neon yellow was shocking and revolutionary for its time, even though they stole the mold

The yellow is ok but what's up with that pink :shock:, awful!

Plasma:
i have this Estusa thread i started with a Jimbo signature racquet in green and grey with some pics... feel free to repost them here fwiw.
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=233947


i dont have the racquet with me anymore. it is in the hand of a jimmy connors fan somewhere in UK....

"I'm beginning to think that Estusa never came up with an original design."

Maybe the Pirotech frames (which had a round beam)?. One was a super-oversize, and another one looked similar to a Power Beam, but with a round, tubular beam. They received awful reviews from Tennis magazines when they came out (poor stability from that design, apparently, plus they had a shock absorbing grip system similar to Dunlop's Isis, which left the frames with no feel).

Yes, the pink bumper and grommets (with a yellow frame!) were a bit much. Connors' version did not have those originally. The grip on these yellow Estusas was also quite spongy, if I recall.

can you blame them? the t2000 was a stolen clone pj, so was the POG, and the adidas gtx pro, didn't elvis steal little richards moves? Estusa was never perceived as a copycat or a fringe company. Before Boris bought the mold to the puma super issuing his own limited edition world champion racquets (only 3,100 ever made), estusa owned his contract and they were hot. I would still be impressed if I saw an estusa pro braided. Even though they directly stole the cosmetics and mold for the puma super, the estusa braided is one of the best looking racquets ever, highly valuable, highly collectible, very playable...and using braided graphite is ingenious.

this is the estusa pro legend lite

marked 95 but clearly bigger than the yellow pro legend classic which is marked 97

used on the ATP pro tour by top pros such as Magnus Larsen. Connors briefly played the purple Prolegend Lite as well, although he played many more tournaments with the yellow model, the Pro Legend classic (the slazenger Phantom 90 pj)

plasma said:

I was excited when I received my Pro Legend Classic years back. Then as I began to inspect it I noticed that it was only 90 square inches at most, and not 97 as marked....the swollen pws like bumps at 12, 5 and 7 o'clock were all too farmiliar. I reached into the vaulted and pulled out a slazenger phantom 90, they were identical!!!

here's what I found:
#1-unlike what happened with Boris Beckers contract, inwhich his famous racquet was cloned, when Estusa took over Slazenger's mold and contract with Connors, they elusively PJ'ed the Phantom 90 neon yellow: a shocking never before seen bold graphic move that had enormous impact on the future of racquet cosmetics

but not only did they steal the triple taper beam,

the unique pws, and the aerodynamic grommet technology

they also completed the decimation of a brand by stealing the detailed description of the racquet and its numerous unique technologies, and some of the feng shui graphics as well. This was fated to literally be the next "prostaff", .....but alas it was not to be.

in addition to stealing the "strategically positioned amorphous metal" jargon (describing the swollen prostaff bumps), and taking the description of their frame directly form the original slazenger...

Estusa was the Mike Tyson of companies, once brilliant, huge, famous, flashy, magical and bold, yet despite a top presence on the pro tour Estusa, with its amazing racquets and funny name, is no more, so we bow our heads, and remember when we hadn't seen it all, when you couldn't get it all, and when racquets felt softer and nicer. Back then not everyone felt like they had to play the number one players racquet, and get a new one every season. Back then racquets didn't all look and feel the same. Back in the renaissance (80's), before the desolate wateland that brought us here with graphite in out hearts, ready to build this new world!

rare early photo from racquetopia
L to R
(Virginia, Bud, Plasma, Deuce, Jorel)

we remember the time before classic racquet talk, before our racquet colony, when we walked alone like the animals, but then we comes together, with the knowin of doin an makin things from times past, we gather for the knowing and doing of the pws and the CAP grommet, the braided graphite and boron the promise of our morrow morrow land, "keep trekkin"

Click to expand...

ESTUSA that Connors used was a very very solid racket; thats what I was told and kinda hard to get. getting the oversize version a piece of cake. Great finds Plas. !!!!!!!!

Gorecki said:

Plasma:
i have this Estusa thread i started with a Jimbo signature racquet in green and grey with some pics... feel free to repost them here fwiw.
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=233947


i dont have the racquet with me anymore. it is in the hand of a jimmy connors fan somewhere in UK....

Click to expand...

Yes, it's somewhere in the UK

Estusa Is Alive And Well(sort Of)

Go to advantage tennis. They have a link to ESTUSA its being made in Korea. They have strings, racquets etc:
So i don,t know why they are not marketing them but, they appear to be using them in Korea

thanks for nothing tail, I am almost crying now (intellectually); those Estusas look like crap. Estusa used to be the hottest racquet on the tour, the choice of number one champions, now they look like the fat guy at the end of the bar screaming "Freebird, put on freebird!" No more puma super clones???, that used to be their motus operandi. Looks like ol cheapshate plasma was a fool not to grab a new pro braided. Didn't tw have them a year and a half ago for 275???
doh!

Was doing a search and found this old thread, Plasma is such a legend

I still don't know if Jimbo used a Slazenger Phantom 90 (like Plasma says), or a 95 (like others have suggested) in 1989. Thought I'd ask one more time just in case anyone knows

Thanks

Captain Haddock said:

"I'm beginning to think that Estusa never came up with an original design."

Maybe the Pirotech frames (which had a round beam)?. One was a super-oversize, and another one looked similar to a Power Beam, but with a round, tubular beam. They received awful reviews from Tennis magazines when they came out (poor stability from that design, apparently, plus they had a shock absorbing grip system similar to Dunlop's Isis, which left the frames with no feel).

Yes, the pink bumper and grommets (with a yellow frame!) were a bit much. Connors' version did not have those originally. The grip on these yellow Estusas was also quite spongy, if I recall.

Click to expand...

Is the Pirotech the racquet with the tire tred bumperguard?
We called it the Tire Tool. A local 5.0 eccentric played that frame. He claimed that he never had a mishit with it. This guy was a backboard with that ugly racquet. He got an Estusa account, and sold them out of his trunk.
Robby C

when I was a junior I wanted that yellow connors racquet so bad. I asked for it for months. Once christmas rolled around, and I opend the package, I saw it was green. It was the one that Gorecki showed in his link. I was insanely bummed about that.

Great racquet though. Got me through a year of team tennis.