Noticed something kind of cool while spending too much time on the auction site. Looks like the '21 VCP and the Percept took their design inspiration from the Dunlop Max 200g Pro and the Dunlop Max 200g "teal" (which I understand might be the Pro II?):
Anyway, hit with the 97D, 97H, and the 100D this morning and I'm Yonex fanboying once again. Spent some time with each warming up, hitting groundies, practicing serves, doing some point play.
I echo a lot of what has been said thus far in that the 97D and the 97H are pretty dang similar to their VCP counterparts. Feel-wise, one of my complaints (significant with respect to the D and minor with respect to the H) was that the feel of the VCP was a bit grainy or gritty - don't know how else to explain the feeling, and that's largely not there anymore. I suspect with the VCP 97H it was less of an issue because of the more open string pattern and the higher mass. The feel is nice and solid but still fairly muted.
100D: Initially when just hitting groundies, my favorite was the 100D. You kind of forget it's there in your hand. It swings naturally and it's easy to get that full extension on a forehand to hit through the ball. It's forgiving in a way a lot of these modern 100 square inch players racquets are, in that you swing hard, put rotation on the ball, and get clean-ish contact, and your ball will most likely find the court. I was playing with one of my favorite hitting partners, who is a big first serve, first strike kind of players with a consistent rally ball. The 100D keeps up with the pace, doesn't make defense too difficult, and facilitates turning defense into offense if you're able to find that extra split second when pulled out wide to plant yourself and take a big crack at the ball. It was on serve that I started to struggle a bit, as I just couldn't get my timing right, and everything seemed to go long, and I struggled to bring the ball down into the court. I think on serves I just prefer something with more mass in the handle. I also agree with
@SupahMan5000 's observation about balls tending to float if I just get my racquet on the ball for a chip or slice unless I really commit to the follow through.
97H: The weight of the H is noticeable after playing with the 100D and the 97D even. At first it was hard to get that same extension through the ball as I was hitting later, but once I reminded myself, this was my second favorite on groundies and favorite for returns. If you get prepared early and relax, there's a good amount of action on the weight on the ball (per my partner). As with the VCP, what would keep me from committing to this is that I just can't seem to find a rhythm on serve. This one actually had the best action and movement on the ball on the rare occasion I hit one well, but I think the weight is just too much for me to do anything consistently with it. Overheads were going long as well because I couldn't get the head around fast enough.
97D: I really hated this thing off the ground at first. It's fine when you're prepped but unlike the 100D and the 97H I feel like I have to be extra intentional about shaping the ball. But once we started point play, this one was the most consistent on the serve (mostly flat) and gave me the most confidence in my movement around the court, whether it was hitting groundies or approaching the net -- weirdly I found myself rushing the net a lot, probably because the balance of this felt the best for reaction shots + had the stringbed trust for touch shots and bleeding pace. It made me want to work with the racquet and just figure out the groundstroke kinks. This is almost exactly how I felt about the VCP 97D, except as noted before, I just couldn't gel with the feel of that racquet. Not an issue with this one!
For all of these, key thing over the VC95 for me is that they all felt so rock solid on return, whether it's taking a full swing, blocking/chipping something back, or just trying to get your racquet on the ball. Seems like I'll grabbing the D's to spend a bit more time with them. Oh and I think for the same reason re solidness and stability, I feel really confident about taking the ball early/on the rise with these.
The weather here has finally dropped enough where I could go back to Vs gut/hawk rough string preference. How do you think it would play in the WOxtd? SupahMan5000, Power Player & you have my curiosity running!
