Asian K90 vs US k90

[dgoran]

I have demoed US k90 again this weekend and as a proud owner of Asian k90 I am having an itch to buy US version as well as I found it to be little bit more stable on slice returns and sometimes on serve (I will explain why sometimes)

Volleys:More heft in US k90 felt more stable on the volleys I am not S&W player but I do find myself "OUT THERE" every now and then to finish up the point.
Groundies:Felt great, stable and little taxing on your arm if you are not use to the weight. I found myself slicing more than usual but I am not sure if that was due to the fact that added weight made me a little lazy, or I felt more secure in slicing, since slicing with US k90 was F**K**G sweet.
Serve: I found that US k90 CAN serve better if you let the racquet do the work for you and you have very relaxed arm. If you are type of server who muscles the ball you might like Asian k90 better as it is much lighter this easier to muscle around.
Return of serve:US 90 wind this one as added heft again helps out returning heavy serve. Slice return, block return all were great. My timing was little off with US k90 on swinging returns as I as use to the more maneuverable AK90.

I am little torn I love specific char. of both and i seems to me that baseliners would love Asian k90 better while US k90 would be more for S&W types.

Have others who own both versions had similar experience?

 

[JamaicanYoute]

I've been using the US version since Sept/Nov ( I think, maybe a little more) and I like it. I've been curious about the Asian as I've heard that it's lighter and I would want to be able to lead it up (to affect balance) without making it too heavy...

 

[dgoran]

I have not tried lead on this one yet, but I believe it would be easier to make it in to PS 85 swingweight that US one.

I actually ordered US k90 today so i will have it in Wednesday. I can't wait .

-Goran

 

[JamaicanYoute]

I have not tried lead on this one yet, but I believe it would be easier to make it in to PS 85 swingweight that US one.

I actually ordered US k90 today so i will have it in Wednesday. I can't wait .

-Goran

How/Where do I/Can I order/demo the Asian version? What's the weight difference?

 

[AlpineCadet]

The AK90 is more head heavy and more flexible than the USk90 ~63 vs. ~66 I believe.

 

[Azzurri]

How/Where do I/Can I order/demo the Asian version? What's the weight difference?

contact me.
lappano@gmail.com

 

[Azzurri]

I have demoed US k90 again this weekend and as a proud owner of Asian k90 I am having an itch to buy US version as well as I found it to be little bit more stable on slice returns and sometimes on serve (I will explain why sometimes)

Volleys:More heft in US k90 felt more stable on the volleys I am not S&W player but I do find myself "OUT THERE" every now and then to finish up the point.
Groundies:Felt great, stable and little taxing on your arm if you are not use to the weight. I found myself slicing more than usual but I am not sure if that was due to the fact that added weight made me a little lazy, or I felt more secure in slicing, since slicing with US k90 was F**K**G sweet.
Serve: I found that US k90 CAN serve better if you let the racquet do the work for you and you have very relaxed arm. If you are type of server who muscles the ball you might like Asian k90 better as it is much lighter this easier to muscle around.
Return of serve:US 90 wind this one as added heft again helps out returning heavy serve. Slice return, block return all were great. My timing was little off with US k90 on swinging returns as I as use to the more maneuverable AK90.

I am little torn I love specific char. of both and i seems to me that baseliners would love Asian k90 better while US k90 would be more for S&W types.

Have others who own both versions had similar experience?

I have also played both racquets. I went from the US to the Asian back to the US and now I am no longer changing...I am keeping the Asian. These are just my opinions.

While I agree the heft is more with the US, there is plenty of heft with the AK90. So I thought the lighter racquet was easier to manuever around the net, so to me they both felt solid (no difference), but the AK90 was easier to handle around the net (I play a lot of doubles and the AK90 is a better net racquet)

I agree the USK90 seems to provide wicked slice (spin), but to be honest, I also hit more slice BH with the USK because of the weight. I found that the heft caused me to slice a bit more and that actually end up being a blessing. With my AK, I actually hit more slices last night than normal. And the spin I created was very good. A few times the other team had to really adjust their swing because of the spin, so I got as much spin on my AK than my USK.

Serve: You are 100% accurate. Let the USK do some of the work, but you can really hit all out on the AK. That is one reason why I went back to the AK. I am able to hid some speedy serves and have better placement, however, the USK was different. While I did not get the speed of the AK, I had a higher % 1st serve with the USK. But it was no where near the speed. So I will take a lesser 1st serve % to get tons of free points (not bragging, but no one returns my 1st serve (the one that I juice) with any sort of consistency. That is the one part of my game (when I am on) that people have a hard time with. I always get people telling me after matches how hard my serve was to return..etc. Again not bragging, just stating why I had to go back to the AK.

Sevice return...no comparison. I was able to serve return better with the AK. It took me a few weeks of playing the USK and then reverting back to the AK to realize I have a better return game with the AK. Even though the AK is nearly 12 oz, it just feels light enough and heavy enough to have great stability returning hard serves My backhand return is way better with the AK, but about the same with my FH for both racquets (but towards the 2nd set, the weight would tire my arm/shoulder that I would begin to hit late on FH and BH returns with the USK).

So unless you like the heaviness of a 12.5 oz plus racquet, then stick with the USK90, but if you want just a little less weight, this is a terrific racquet.

 

[dgoran]

Thanks for your comparison slappano, I am not that frequet at the net (I don't play doubles at all) so maybe that is why I concluded that USK90 was a little better at the net when I do go out. It looked like it was more wall like to stop/neutralize a heavy ball at the net.
BTW Did you find that both require natural gut to really bring out the potential of this racquet.
I am experimenting with the strings right now for AK90 and after trying:

Wilson NXT/TopSpin Hybrid Cyberflash = Very Very good, almost perfect, the closest to Full gut job I tried so far, low durability = 6hrs of play before nxt broke

Full TopSpin Cyberflash = not good for feel or anything IMHO except durability

Full lux BB Orig. = Not Good similar to full Cyberflash except less control and more power

Wilson Synth Gut/Top Spin Cyberflash = too powerful not good for control or serve.

Full Bab VS Nat Gut 15L = Great, everything was awesome , served really clicked with this one great spin, abaility to swing out without holding back (not sure if you know what I mean, you know that feeling when you are not holding back your shots you can just wack the ball that sits up and the ball goes in...) It took me a little while to adjust to power but once adjusted I loved the fact that tension maintenance did not require me to relearn every time I go out and hit (once a week), like low tension maintenance string.
I mean perfect... I did not have accurate measure of durability since I played less frequetly the first month and than more frequent in the month after that, but it did last 2 months.
This is perfect setup I found so far except for your pocket I paid $60 for string job.

Full Bab VS Nat Gut 16 = Not as good as 15L IMHO but not bad. I had better control with 15L, VS 16 was way to powerful and I even went 2lb higher,I lost ability to swing out, had to hold back a little. Durability was terrible for me under 6hrs sort of waste of money.

Now I will try Klip Legend at 15L in my USK90 to see if its similar to babolat vs 15L that I loved. It cost only $19 with purchase through TW.

Setups I will try in future:

Klip Legend/ Iso Pro Hybrid

Full Wilson Sensation(I had really solid experience in my PS 85 minus durability but it was at least cheap.)

Prince Synth Gut Duraflex

Full Gosen Synth Gut (I also had really solid experience in my old PS 85, string was free and it surprised me with performance)

Klip Legend or Bab VS gut in hybrid with some Synth gut


What are your experiences

-Goran

 

[Azzurri]

Thanks for your comparison slappano, I am not that frequet at the net (I don't play doubles at all) so maybe that is why I concluded that USK90 was a little better at the net when I do go out. It looked like it was more wall like to stop/neutralize a heavy ball at the net.
BTW Did you find that both require natural gut to really bring out the potential of this racquet.
I am experimenting with the strings right now for AK90 and after trying:

Wilson NXT/TopSpin Hybrid Cyberflash = Very Very good, almost perfect, the closest to Full gut job I tried so far, low durability = 6hrs of play before nxt broke

Full TopSpin Cyberflash = not good for feel or anything IMHO except durability

Full lux BB Orig. = Not Good similar to full Cyberflash except less control and more power

Wilson Synth Gut/Top Spin Cyberflash = too powerful not good for control or serve.

Full Bab VS Nat Gut 15L = Great, everything was awesome , served really clicked with this one great spin, abaility to swing out without holding back (not sure if you know what I mean, you know that feeling when you are not holding back your shots you can just wack the ball that sits up and the ball goes in...) It took me a little while to adjust to power but once adjusted I loved the fact that tension maintenance did not require me to relearn every time I go out and hit (once a week), like low tension maintenance string.
I mean perfect... I did not have accurate measure of durability since I played less frequetly the first month and than more frequent in the month after that, but it did last 2 months.
This is perfect setup I found so far except for your pocket I paid $60 for string job.

Full Bab VS Nat Gut 16 = Not as good as 15L IMHO but not bad. I had better control with 15L, VS 16 was way to powerful and I even went 2lb higher,I lost ability to swing out, had to hold back a little. Durability was terrible for me under 6hrs sort of waste of money.

Now I will try Klip Legend at 15L in my USK90 to see if its similar to babolat vs 15L that I loved. It cost only $19 with purchase through TW.

Setups I will try in future:

Klip Legend/ Iso Pro Hybrid

Full Wilson Sensation(I had really solid experience in my PS 85 minus durability but it was at least cheap.)

Prince Synth Gut Duraflex

Full Gosen Synth Gut (I also had really solid experience in my old PS 85, string was free and it surprised me with performance)

Klip Legend or Bab VS gut in hybrid with some Synth gut


What are your experiences

-Goran

I play mostly doubles because its cheaper at my club and I enjoy playing S&V tennis. Its also a bit easier since i only have to cover 1/2 the court.

OK..the string. Yes, absolutely does string affect this racquet (I mean all pretty much do, but this case its really different hitting with gut). I have hit the USK90 and AK90 with poly, multi, syn gut and gut. Gut is easily the best string for this racquet. I believe the smaller headsize compensates for the power you et from nat gut, so this racquet loves gut. I noticed you have played more than one. The trick is finding the right gut for you and what you want the gut to do for you. I wated a low-powered, crisp gut. I chose Klip Legend 17g. It is has an excelent feel and is actually softer than expected. In fact, I liked the soft feel so much I will be trying out BDE (supposedly a softer string bed). But I will not play this racquet without gut.

 

[dgoran]

Do you feel a great diffrence with Full Klip job vs your current setup (Klip crossed with synth gut?)

 

[Automatix]

Hey Slappano I've got 2 questions... if you may answer the below:

1) I know TW matched your USK I am wondering did you check the weight of the frames they sent you? I know I know you are so weight/balance sensitive that you feel that they are the same but I wanted to compare the weight of your frames to the specs on TW website.

2) How does the matching actually work? How do you get that option? I did try the US K90 and really liked it, actually I love heavy frames with high swingweight (my M-Fil 200s were build up to ~380g), but in order to have 3-5identical frames I have to order them from TW...

THX!

 

[Azzurri]

Do you feel a great diffrence with Full Klip job vs your current setup (Klip crossed with synth gut?)

I don't really know the answer. I will tell you this, the gut main has a completely different feel than the all gosen (I have had them in other racquets), so having a string in the mains is truly the feel of the racquet string bed. I hybrid to save a buck or two.

also, get yourself a stringer and do it yourself. you are spending waayyy too much money on string jobs.

 

[dgoran]

Any particular stringer do you reccomend? Which one do you have?

 

[Azzurri]

Hey Slappano I've got 2 questions... if you may answer the below:

1) I know TW matched your USK I am wondering did you check the weight of the frames they sent you? I know I know you are so weight/balance sensitive that you feel that they are the same but I wanted to compare the weight of your frames to the specs on TW website.

2) How does the matching actually work? How do you get that option? I did try the US K90 and really liked it, actually I love heavy frames with high swingweight (my M-Fil 200s were build up to ~380g), but in order to have 3-5identical frames I have to order them from TW...

THX!

1. If you mean theUSK90 from TW and not the overseas shop, then no, I did not weigh them. I just assumed that TW has the proper weighing scales, so why bother. They were 12.5 strung...and they weighed exactly the same. I could not feel any difference.
My new AK90's were just weighed (no SW and balance was done) and they weighed exactly 320 grams. The seller purchased a weigh machine for that purpose. I was still a little wary because the balance and SW could still be different....but to my surprise, they are almost identical. They feel 99% identical. I could barely feel a difference. So small that I don't notice it unless I sit there and really try and figure which is heavier or lighter. I feel fortunate.

2. Matching service is from TW. Just call and ask for it...you must call and ask. its free as long as the racquets are matched together from their batch. If you already have a racquet and you want TW to match that you currently own its $20.

 

[Azzurri]

Any particular stringer do you reccomend? Which one do you have?

I bought a Klippermate. You can find a good price on the bay sometimes, but they are not too expensive anyway. You would pay for it by 5-7 string jobs at the rate you pay. The first time will take a few hours, but after a few string jobs (2-3) you will get them done in under an hour.

 

[hoodjem]

Wilson NXT/TopSpin Hybrid Cyberflash = Very Very good, almost perfect, the closest to Full gut job I tried so far, low durability = 6hrs of play before nxt broke.

This sounds like a good hybrid combo. Which NXT was it: original, Tour, OS, or Max?

 

[dgoran]

It was NXT Tour

-Goran