Review continued..
Final Tension (1 week after stringing & 6 hours of play)
:
Power of test string:
Initial hit: I found this string to be very low powered. I played outdoors, on clay, and had a hell of a time generating consistent pace on my shots. So much so that my arm/shoulder was fairly tired after just 1 set. Note that I say 'tired' and not 'in pain'. Every now & then I'd hit the sweet spot, but it was as if the sweet spot was reduced.
Final Thoughts: As I said above, very low powered as a full bed. I like to swing through my shots, but this definitely is too demanding of a string for me to handle in a full bed.
Feel/Touch:
Initial hit: Not much to be had. The best I can say is it feels like I'm hitting w/ a full bed of Kevlar. Since I was on clay, I didn't get to the net much. I play indoor doubles tonight, so I will have a better feel (no pun intended) for this category later.
Final Thoughts: Feel/touch around the net was OK. Nothing spectacular, but then my volleys are more defensive than offensive. In a strange way, the low power actually helped as my blocked volleys landed short in the court. But I couldn't seem to knife & stick them when needed.
Comfort:
Initial hit: While my arm/shoulder was worn out after 1 set, there was no 'pain' (at least no more than usual). I wouldn't say it was comfortable, but I also wouldn't say it wasn't. Just stiff.
Final Thoughts: Again, after 1 set my shoulder was tired from swinging so hard. During my last singles match, I played w/ my normal setup the 1st set, then switched to the 4G Rough for the 2nd set. I lasted maybe 4 games before I had to put the frame down. Not painful, just exhausting.
Spin potential:
Initial hit: Initially I thought this setup would be a spin monster, but I didn't feel like I got much at all. I think the issue is when used as a full bed, there is hardly any 'snap-back'. So I was hitting my normal forehand, expecting the trajectory to be higher over the net w/ tons of spin, and instead it was going into the net. I think its there, but you really need to get that racquet head moving fast.
Final Thoughts: I noticed the trajectory off the ball is much lower than with "normal" polys. When I would get a short, low ball to attack, I had a hard time getting it up & down. The 'up' was really the problem as the ball would usually hit the net ~ 5-6 in below the tape. When I went back to my gut/poly setup, I was clearing the net by a good foot on those shots.
Durability:
Initial hit: I'd put this string in the same category as Cockroaches, as in they will still be around after a Nuclear attack. Seriously, I don't see this stuff breaking anytime soon.
Final Thoughts: After 4 matches, one on clay, the string looks good as new. No noticeable notching. I would say this is a string you go into thinking "I'll play X matches, then cut it out", because it isn't breaking anytime soon.
Playability Duration:
Final Thoughts: Honestly I don't think it changed much from it's initial tension of 44-45 during the 1st hit to 42.4 during the last hit. Maybe slightly more power, but that really is subjective as my initial hit was on clay and final hit was indoors (it's been raining like crazy here in VA for 3 days now).
Control:
Initial hit: Tons & tons of control. In fact, if I were a college coach with USTA rated 5.0+ players, I'd be putting this stuff in their frames right away.
Final Thoughts: Again, if there was ever a string that should be named 'CONTROL' in large bolded font, this is it. The ball went where I wanted it to, I just had to swing for the fences to get it there.
Compare to the string you use most often:
Initial hit: After playing 1 set I went back to my gut/poly combo and noticed two things: more power (there's a shocker), and a higher trajectory ball. It was odd, as for the first time I could actually feel the strings 'snapping back' after contact. Also, the 'Fischer feel' returned to my frame. I don't think I realized how much I've grown accustomed to that feel until now.
Final Thoughts: Even indoors I had a hard time generating power. During my last hit, my opponent commented on how he could suddenly dictate some points as I wasn't getting the depth, pace & spin as I was with my gut/poly racquet (Note for the record that both frames were the X Force Pro).
Tension recommendations:
Initial hit: Most definitely in the 40s. As you can see from my images above, 48lbs dropped almost 10% after 1 set 18 hours after stringing. That is actually not that bad considering most polys will drop 10% before you even hit once.
Final Thoughts: If I had to do again, I'd probably start at 45, and maybe even go as low as 43 or 42. Who knows, I might start seeing the trajectory & power/dwell time increase.
Additional thoughts:
As a full bed of poly, I think this is unusable by pretty much anyone under a USTA 5.0 rating. It is too low powered, and requires serious racquet head speed to generate spin. I think the potential for spin is there, but I'm just not good enough to generate the amount needed on a consistent long-term basis. I'd really like to try this in a hybrid setup, either with gut mains, or maybe even a smooth round poly. I did a gut/ALU Rough years ago and thought it played great for ~ 2-3 sets. Maybe this can last longer?
