Need help with Russian made racquet

WARPWOODIE

WARPWOODIE

Rookie
I found a racquet today which I need help identifying and for specs.
On the racquet/loop are these characters:
nporpeec
On the mono neck:
rnabcnoptnpom
Anyone familiar with this racquet?
No strings on it and am wondering if there are shared holes for stringing?
Thanks in advance for any information!
 
P

PhotoBlue

Professional
WARPWOODIE said:
I found a racquet today which I need help identifying and for specs.
On the racquet/loop are these characters:
nporpeec
On the mono neck:
rnabcnoptnpom
Anyone familiar with this racquet?
No strings on it and am wondering if there are shared holes for stringing?
Thanks in advance for any information!
Click to expand...

Does it look more like "прогреес" and "гпавспортпром"?
 
Kalin

Kalin

Legend
Well, "прогреcс" means 'Progress' and it must be the racquet's name while "гпавспортпром" (Glavsportprom) is a typical Russian-language monstrosity of an abbreviation meaning 'Main (or Central) Sports Enterprise' so it is the maker's name.

I'm not sure if this helps at all :(
 
WARPWOODIE

WARPWOODIE

Rookie
Kalin said:
Well, "прогреcс" means 'Progress' and it must be the racquet's name while "гпавспортпром" (Glavsportprom) is a typical Russian-language monstrosity of an abbreviation meaning 'Main (or Central) Sports Enterprise' so it is the maker's name.

I'm not sure if this helps at all :(
Click to expand...

Thanks Kalin! Any information is helpful. Anyway, I was checking around and found "80's tennis racquets"...basically, the racquet is very similar to the Fisher SuperForms and Kneissel Red Star. It appears that they have shared holes for stringing. It is in mint condition and was never strung. When I asked the lady at the Goodwill if she could give me discount because it lacked strings, she agreed and sold it to me for $3.00:) It would be interesting to know the relative value of it now...being that this is an 80's racquet, the latter part of the cold war era.
 
WARPWOODIE

WARPWOODIE

Rookie
Kalin said:
Found a link at rambler.ru (just paste 'прогреcс главспортпром теннис' in the Search box)

http://krsk.24au.ru/1913634/

The seller says it is 'made in the USSR under Kneissl Austria license'

Edit: seems they also made the 'Giant' (Гигант)!

http://emarket.ua/objavlenie/tennisnaja-raketka-glavsportprom-ID1pEWf.html

Is this an Estusa/Puma shape??
Click to expand...

Thanks again! Yea, the first link is the racquet I have. It seems to be a midsize head. Will string tonight...should be fun to hit with. BTW, also with the purchase came the head cover...also plastered in Russian:?
 
maxpotapov

maxpotapov

Hall of Fame
I believe it was licensed from Kneissl. The first graphite/fiberglass composite racquet made in USSR. It was quite challenging to play with, like with any mono I suppose.
 
B

BorgCash

Legend
Kalin said:
Found a link at rambler.ru (just paste 'прогреcс главспортпром теннис' in the Search box)

http://krsk.24au.ru/1913634/

The seller says it is 'made in the USSR under Kneissl Austria license'

Edit: seems they also made the 'Giant' (Гигант)!

http://emarket.ua/objavlenie/tennisnaja-raketka-glavsportprom-ID1pEWf.html

Is this an Estusa/Puma shape??
Click to expand...

There were three types of racquets produced in former Soviet Union under Kneissl license: Master (White Star Pro), Progress (Blue Star Mid) and Gigant
(Red Star Big). First they looked like real Kneissl with its original brand name written on, later the quality got down and the racquets got russian names. They were very popular back then because you couldn't afford good quality tennis racquet in the USSR (except somebody brought it from abroad).
I have some of these racquets, will share the pictures next week.
 
B

BorgCash

Legend
WARPWOODIE said:
Thanks again! Yea, the first link is the racquet I have. It seems to be a midsize head. Will string tonight...should be fun to hit with. BTW, also with the purchase came the head cover...also plastered in Russian:?
Click to expand...

First covers were Kneissl original, then there were soviet-made covers from factory in Kiev, Ukraine.
 
L

Love50

Rookie
Speaking of Russian racquets... does anyone know anything about a racquet made by Xokken (I believe that is "hockey" in Russian with the proper Cyrillic spelling). Looks like a Wilson Profile clone.
 
B

BorgCash

Legend
Love50 said:
Speaking of Russian racquets... does anyone know anything about a racquet made by Xokken (I believe that is "hockey" in Russian with the proper Cyrillic spelling). Looks like a Wilson Profile clone.
Click to expand...

Hockey in russian will be Хоккей.
Can you post the picture please?
 
B

BorgCash

Legend
Love50 said:
Speaking of Russian racquets... does anyone know anything about a racquet made by Xokken (I believe that is "hockey" in Russian with the proper Cyrillic spelling). Looks like a Wilson Profile clone.
Click to expand...

There is an " Experimental Factory "Hockey" in Moscow, which produced mostly hockey sticks and some tennis racquets.
 
L

Love50

Rookie
BorgCash said:
I see, there is Композит (Composite material) written on.
I think the racquet is not good for playing, like a piece of plastic, may be i'm wrong.
See nice old Fischer (Superform model?), what is on the top?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the translation!

I would agree with you about the playability :) The construction looks cheap and I didn't like how it swings. If any collector wants it for free (so that they can say they have a Russian racquet), drop me a note.

Not sure why I bought it, must have been to take advantage of bundled shipping from Europe...

The racquet at the top is a MAG-I T201 from Tremont Research out of Chicago. It's a composite sandwich racquet similar to the Head stuff that Arthur Ashe used.
 
Kalin

Kalin

Legend
I like the colour of the Composite model, though! Seems like a nice paintjob. We need more olive-green racquets
 
B

BorgCash

Legend
Love50 said:
Thanks for the translation!

I would agree with you about the playability :) The construction looks cheap and I didn't like how it swings. If any collector wants it for free (so that they can say they have a Russian racquet), drop me a note.

Not sure why I bought it, must have been to take advantage of bundled shipping from Europe...

The racquet at the top is a MAG-I T201 from Tremont Research out of Chicago. It's a composite sandwich racquet similar to the Head stuff that Arthur Ashe used.
Click to expand...

Never heard about this racquet company. Was it a small one?
 
B

BorgCash

Legend
Kalin said:
I like the colour of the Composite model, though! Seems like a nice paintjob. We need more olive-green racquets
Click to expand...

I think they used the paint that was at the factory at that moment.

We have a lot of different composite soviet/russian-built racquets here in Moscow, but the real good were only that licenced Kneissls.
Progress and Giant are quite common, the rarest one is Master.
 
B

BorgCash

Legend
WARPWOODIE said:
Thanks Kalin! Any information is helpful. Anyway, I was checking around and found "80's tennis racquets"...basically, the racquet is very similar to the Fisher SuperForms and Kneissel Red Star. It appears that they have shared holes for stringing. It is in mint condition and was never strung. When I asked the lady at the Goodwill if she could give me discount because it lacked strings, she agreed and sold it to me for $3.00:) It would be interesting to know the relative value of it now...being that this is an 80's racquet, the latter part of the cold war era.
Click to expand...

The typical price for it here in Moscow is about $10-17.
The racquets were produced in 1989-92 as i remember.
During the production time the quality decreased, so the best were made in 1989-90.
 
WARPWOODIE

WARPWOODIE

Rookie
BorgCash said:
The typical price for it here in Moscow is about $10-17.
The racquets were produced in 1989-92 as i remember.
During the production time the quality decreased, so the best were made in 1989-90.
Click to expand...
Thanks! I strung up the racquet last night with MSV Hex (mains) and Wilson Sensation (crosses) at a really low tension of 35/40 for fear that it might collapse on me, but she held up and I think it can go even tighter. The stringbed got tighter as the crosses were applied. I also put on a white overgrip tape on top of the nice leather underneath and she looks good to go. I'm really looking forward to putting her through the paces.:) For a novelty item (cold war era racquet), I'd guess it could possibly fetch $30-$40 here in the US??
 
Last edited:
WARPWOODIE

WARPWOODIE

Rookie
Kalin said:
I like the colour of the Composite model, though! Seems like a nice paintjob. We need more olive-green racquets
Click to expand...

I'm not good with colors...so I had my daughter look at it. She describes it as teal green. It is a nice shade of green.:)
 
B

BorgCash

Legend
WARPWOODIE said:
Thanks! I strung up the racquet last night with MSV Hex (mains) and Wilson Sensation (crosses) at a really low tension of 35/40 for fear that it might collapse on me, but she held up and I think it can go even tighter. The stringbed got tighter as the crosses were applied. I also put on a white overgrip tape on top of the nice leather underneath and she looks good to go. I'm really looking forward to putting her through the paces.:) For a novelty item (cold war era racquet), I'd guess it could possibly fetch $30-$40 here in the US??
Click to expand...

I know some people who still playing with these racquets, it's not easy but if you have good old-school technique you will like it. Give it a try.
 
WARPWOODIE

WARPWOODIE

Rookie
BorgCash said:
I know some people who still playing with these racquets, it's not easy but if you have good old-school technique you will like it. Give it a try.
Click to expand...
Yea, I'm old school and love old wooden tennis racquets, even the warped one, hence my screen handle.:grin:
 
P

PhotoBlue

Professional
BorgCash said:
Спасибо, Вы прекрасно общаетесь по-русски!
Где так выучили?
Click to expand...

Различные книги и другие компьютерные программы. Игра в теннис дает мне много воздействием русских, поэтому я могу говорить на нем довольно часто.
 
B

BorgCash

Legend
PhotoBlue said:
Различные книги и другие компьютерные программы. Игра в теннис дает мне много воздействием русских, поэтому я могу говорить на нем довольно часто.
Click to expand...

Здорово!
Играете в теннис с русскими, живущими в Америке?
 
B

BorgCash

Legend
PhotoBlue said:
Да, да. Вы откуда? Москва?
Click to expand...

Да, из Москвы. Играю с 1986 года (начинал в 1982, но деревянными ракетками плохо получалось). В Америке не был, хочу попасть когда- нибудь на US Open.
Люблю теннис 80-х годов и собираю старые ракетки.
Алексей.
 
P

PhotoBlue

Professional
BorgCash said:
Да, из Москвы. Играю с 1986 года (начинал в 1982, но деревянными ракетками плохо получалось). В Америке не был, хочу попасть когда- нибудь на US Open.
Люблю теннис 80-х годов и собираю старые ракетки.
Алексей.
Click to expand...

Здорово! Я не такой старый haha, так что я действительно не поклонник старой ракетки. Они немного скучно.

English Russian mix there with "haha" lol. For anyone who doesn't know russian we've been talking about Russian and tennis and stuff...
 
B

BorgCash

Legend
PhotoBlue said:
Здорово! Я не такой старый haha, так что я действительно не поклонник старой ракетки. Они немного скучно.

English Russian mix there with "haha" lol. For anyone who doesn't know russian we've been talking about Russian and tennis and stuff...
Click to expand...

In Russian ha-ha will be ха-ха.
Будем общаться, спасибо.
Я еще могу на лыжах (cross-country ski) пробежать 50 км (not so old).
 
SOY78

SOY78

Professional
Sorry for the thread resurrection but Zdes' v Amerike ochen' mnogo russko govoryashih :)
Also I used to play with the russian wood racquet then a russian version of the Prince Pro called Libid' if I remember correctly. The Libid' would warp like crazy if left in the sunshine outside LOL
 
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