At today's Stuttgart grass tournament, Del potro's Wilson that was painted black with gold highlighting, along with the big "W", sure looked like the longish oval head and extra lumps of weight that the K-6 was known for. Like a few players who have trouble with using a different maker's game asw the9r carrere was coming to the end, Like Davidenko and Blake, a racquet that becomes to feel like an extension of your hand, it's difficult for them to change. But if they are highly ranked or get a lot of press, like Delpo's multiple surgeries, the brand that helped them get to the high point of their game, a big company will make a custom racquet for them that is painted to look like a production model, yet this paint job looks different than any other racquet Wilson currently produces.
So if Del potro can make a big come-back into, say, the top 10, Wilson may just come out with a "new" racquet that has most of the specs of another5 one that was popular, give it a new name and start selling a whole new line again.
An example may be when Farrer changed from his Prince Pro 'extended length ' racquet, the first few matches he played with the 'new' Babolat Pure Drive extend racquet that was a lot more thin than the production ones were. But after a while, he either made at he adjustment, or Babolat has made the adjustment unnecessary for him, by making the materials thinner in the head, to make it plat like his sold Prince did. I had started playing and coaching kids, after putting down the stick in '92. I bought a Wilson with a 195" head, that was painted like the 105" K-6 was, but a much cheaper, pre-strung frame called a K-Bold. It was nice, but way to head heavy and the overall weight was to little to hit with, like I used to. So I learned how to add weight with lead, had the racquet restrung to a lighter weight and it felt much better, but as I found other racquets and donated some to kids I was coaching, I found 3 racquets I really love. A Babolat Y-109, strung at 52mX47c with Asway ZX mono gut, a Prince Silver O-port 118" strung with gamma Live Wire 17 gauge mains & gamma Tnt 17 cr at 43 lb m X 38 are fantastic , but an old oddball Pro-Kennex Composite Destiny, that I used to use from about '85-92 I restrung myself, when I bought a used Klippermate stringer and used Gamma Syngut, at 40lbs mains X 35pound crosses, using a stringing design I tried, after Wilson came out with their "S-pin" racquets, that had sewer crosses than mains, I just skipped every other hole on the crosses to get the effect and added a bunch of weight to the handles, using (I can hear the laughs from here, guys) old silverware with the fork ans spoons broken off, underneath the gamma gell replacement grips, is really MY FAVORITE STICK, OFF ALL!
Ok, I sure did "digress", so I hope you guy's don't mind TOO much, but my original point was, if the POro is ranked high enough, who knows what he plays with, or what people Think they use, as long as 'it sells on Monday, when it helped them win on Sunday!' Extra points for those who know where and what that last quote was from.
